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LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


BL  475  .B86  1880 
Bunsen,  Ernst  von,  1819- 

1903. 
The  angel-messiah  of 

Rnridhists.     Rssptips.     anfi 


'/ 


- 


THE 


ANGEL -MESSIAH 


LOS LOS  :    PRINTED    BY 

8POTTISUOODE     AND    CO.,    NEW-STREET    SQUARE 

AND     PARLIAMENT     STREET 


THE 


ANGEL-MESSIAH 


OF 


BUDDHISTS,   ESSENES,   AND   CHRISTIANS 


BY 


ERNEST    DE    BUNSEN 


LONDON 
LONGMANS,     GREEN,     AND    CO. 

1880 


.1//    righ  It     '  ■    er\ 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  conception  of  an  incarnate  Angel  as  Messiah  is 
of  Eastern  origin,  and  there  is  no  trace  of  it  in  those 
portions  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  which  possibly  were 
written  before  the  Captivity,  nor  in  the  first  three 
Gospels.  'The  Angel-Messiah'  or  Melech-Hamoshiach 
is  a  compound  title  which  constantly  occurs  in  the 
Commentaries  or  Midrashim,  the  records  of  Scribal  tra- 
dition, also  in  the  Targums.  Although  this  Messianic 
name  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Talmud,  the  latter 
designates  as  the  Messiah  the  Angel  of  God  who  followed 
the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  and  who  is  here  called 
the  Angel  Metatron,  or  He  who  stands  by  the  throne 
(pp.  91,  92, 101,  303).    That  Angel  Paul  calls  Christ. 

It  can  be  shown  that  this  new  Messianic  conception 
was  introduced  into  Judaism  and  into  Christianity  by  the 
Essenes  or  Essai,  to  whom  John  the  Baptist  or  Ashai, 
the  bather,  probably  belonged,  and  who  are  in  the 
New  Testament  designated  as  disciples  of  John.  Jesus 
opposed  the  principal  doctrines  of  John,  whom  he 
designated  as  not  belonging  to  his  kingdom  of  heaven,  or 
of  the  Spirit,  which  he  declared  as  having  already  come  ; 
whilst  the  disciples  of  John  had  not  even  heard  'whether 
there  be  any  Holy  Ghost.'  The  disciples  of  John  the 
Baptist  or  Essene  must  have  expected  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  would  be  brought  from  heaven  to  earth  by  Him 
who  should   baptize  with   the  Holy  Ghost.     The   Law 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

and  the  Prophets  until  John  had  only  prophesied  about 
the  future  coming  of  the  Spirit  of  God  or  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  but  since  the  days  of  John  those  who  entered 
it  did  so  by  force,  because  it  suffered  violence,  or  was 
violently  closed  by  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  who  '  shut 
up  the  kingdom  of  heaven  against  men.'  Jesus  did  not 
sanction,  but  seems  to  have  even  opposed,  the  doctrine 
of  the  Angel-Messiah  as  promulgated  by  the  Essenes  or 
disciples  of  John. 

Nothing  is  transmitted  to  us  about  the  Messianic 
expectations  of  the  Essenes,  and  this  mysterious  fact  is 
I  >est  explained  by  the  supposition  that  their  secret  tradi- 
tion referred  to  an  incarnate  Angel  as  the  Messiah.  This 
supposition  is  confirmed  by  the  presumable  Messianic 
expectations  of  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene.  As  such  he 
could  not  reveal  them,  if  <  He  that  should  come,'  the 
Tathagata  of  Buddhists  (p.  342),  was  to  be  an  incarnate 
Angel ;  for  the  Essenes  were  bound  by  oath  not  to 
divulge  their  doctrines  about  angels.  At  the  end  of 
the  Apostolic  age  the  Essenes  can  be  proved  to  have 
believed  in  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah,  and  Epiphanius 
asserts  that  they  never  changed  their  original  doctrines 
(pp.  111-117).  A  special  oath  bound  the  initiated  Essene 
4  not  to  communicate  to  any  one  their  doctrines  in  any 
other  way  than  lie  has  received  them.'  Thus  innova- 
tions were  excluded,  and  it  becomes  probable  that  the 
Essenes  in  the  time  of  John  expected  an  Angel-Messiah. 

The  first  Jew  who  can  be  proved  to  have  applied 
this  new  Messianic  doctrine  to  Jesus  was  Stephen,  one 
of  the  Greek-speaking  Jews,  Grecians  or  Hellenists, 
ome  of  whom  were  from  Alexandria,  where  the  prin- 
cipal settlements  of  the  Essenian  Therapeuts  were.    We 


INTRODUCTION.  Vll 

shall  try  to  show  that  Stephen's  doctrine  of  an  Angel- 
Messiah,  which  Paul  accepted,  was  an  Essenic  doctrine. 

Paul  was  probably  among  the  men  of  Cilicia  who 
took  part  in  the  disputations  with  Stephen  ;  and  he  was 
present  at  the  death  of  the  first  martyr,  previous  to  his 
journey  to  Damascus  as  leader  of  the  persecution  which 
arose  '  because  of  Stephen.'  The  latter's  co-religionists, 
distinguished  from  the  Hebrews  as  Grecians  in  the  Acts, 
were  scattered,  whilst  the  Apostles  remained  at  Jeru- 
salem. Some  of  the  scattered  disciples  went  as  far  as 
Antioch  ;  and  to  this  congregation  or  Church,  founded 
independently  from  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem,  Paul  was 
introduced  by  Barnabas.  His  Epistle,  cited  as  genuine 
by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  ancient  Church  (pp.  323, 
324),  proves  him  to  have  been  an  Essene  and  a  preacher 
of  Jesus,  not  as  son  of  David,  but  as  Son  of  God,  as  the 
Angel-Messiah  whom  the  Essenes  expected.  After  the 
conversion  of  Paul  to  the  faith  of  Stephen,  which  once 
he  destroyed,  the  new  Apostle  had  accepted  some  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  universalist  Therapeuts.  Paul  promul- 
gated by  his  Epistles  the  faith  in  Christ  as  the  spiritual 
Pock  which  followed  the  Israelites,  that  is,  as  the  Angel 
of  whom  Stephen  had  said,  almost  in  the  same  words, 
that  he  had  been  with  the  fathers  in  the  wilderness. 
In  this  sense  Paul  says  that  Christ  was  the  man  '  from 
heaven,'  and  that  all  things  were  by  him  created. 

The  principal  doctrines  and  rites  of  the  Essenes  can 
be  connected  with  the  East,  with  Parsism,  and  especially 
with  Buddhism.  Among  the  doctrines  which  Essenes 
and  Buddhists  had  in  common  was  that  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah  The  remarkable  parallels  in  the  most  ancient 
records  of  the  lives  of  Gautama-Buddha  and  of  Jesus 


Vlll  INTRODUCTION. 

Christ  require  explanation.  They  cannot  all  be  attri- 
buted to  chance  or  to  importation  from  the  West. 

We  now  possess  an  uninterrupted  chain  of  Bud- 
dhist writings  in  China,  *  from  at  least  100  B.C.  to 
a.d.  600,'  according  to  Professor  Beal.  In  the  Chinese 
version  of  the  Dhammapada,  by  him  translated  (No. 
xxxi.  p.  142  f.),  Buddha's  sermon  on  '  Falsehood  '  is  fully 
given,  which  is  alluded  to  by  Asokain  the  second  Bairat 
rock-inscription  (see  General  Cunningham's  Corpus 
Inscriptorum  Indicarum,  i.  132).  Some  discourses  of 
Buddha  were  commonly  known  in  India  as  early  as 
Asoka  at  least,  who,  in  B.C.  250,  or  29  years  before 
the  destruction  of  Chinese  books,  is  said  to  have  sent 
the  first  Buddhist  missionaries  to  China  and  to  Ceylon. 

To  Ceylon  Asoka's  son  Mahinda,  according  to  tradi- 
tion, took  the  Vinaya  Pitaka  or  '  treasure-box,'  the  most 
ancient  of  the  three  Pitakas.  The  Northern  or  Chinese 
edition  harmonises  in  all  essential  points  with  the 
Southern  or  Ceylon  canon,  though  the  connection  be- 
tween the  two  schools  was  broken.  The  first  canon  is 
wrongly  said  to  have  been  drawn  up  immediately  after 
Buddha's  death,  79  years  after  b.c.  473,  or  B.C.  394,  '  a 
few  years  later  than  B.C.  400,'  as  Mr.  Rhys  Davids  cor- 
rects the  Ceylon  date.  It  follows,  that  between  B.C.  280 
and  150  the  authors  of  the  Septuagint,  initiated  in  Essenic 
and  Buddhistic  tradition,  as  we  here  assume,  reckoned 
backwards  from  B.C.  473,  known  as  the  date  of  Buddha's 
birth,  the  440  years  of  the  Greek  text  for  the  period  from 
the  third  of  Solomon  to  the  Exodus,  thence  the  430 
years  to  Abraham's  leaving  Earan,  and  thus  1017  years 
were  left  for  the  period  to  the  year  of  the  flood,  b.c. 
2360.     The  chronology  of  the  Septuagint  implies,  that 


(XTR0DUCTI0X.  ix 

Buddha,  ('  a  greater  than  Solomon ')  Moses,  Abraham, 
and  Adam  were  precursors  of  Christ  as  incarnations  of 
the  Angel-Messiah.  Had  Philo  and  Josephus  believed 
this,  they  would  have  recognised  Jesus  as  the  Christ. 

The  object  of  the  first  attempt  to  connect  Paul 
with  the  Essenes,  and  these  with  the  expectation  of 
an  Angel-Messiah,  is  to  explain  the  striking  similarity 
between  the  Buddhistic  and  Christian  Scriptures  by  a 
fusion  of  both  traditions,  as  consciously  effected  by  the 
Essenes.  Thus  the  opinion  of  Eusebius  will  be  con- 
firmed, who  considered  it  '  highly  probable '  that  the 
writings  of  the  Therapeuts,  which  they  had  received 
from  the  founders  of  their  society,  have  been  utilised  in 
the  composition  of  the  four  Gospels,  of  Paul's  Epistles, 
and  especially  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

The  principal  result  of  this  argument  would  be  that 
Paul,  not  Jesus,  was  the  cause  of  the  separation  between 
Judaism  and  Christianity. 

The  germs  of  this  separation  can  be  traced  back  to 
the  different  symbolism,  represented  on  one  side  by  the 
Hebrews,  on  the  other  by  the  strangers  in  Israel,  to  whom 
the  Eechabites  and  Essenes  belonged.  The  ancestors  of 
both  had  once  lived  under  one  roof  in  the  East.  Already 
the  reformation  of  Brahmanism  by  Buddhism  had  shown, 
that  the  moral  principle  in  man  may  lead  to  different  sym- 
bols and  rites,  but  that  what  Humanity  has  in  common 
is  sufficient  for  '  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity.' 

Several  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ 
some  figures  of  constellations  had  become  symbols  of 
moral  doctrines.  Sooner  or  later  these  were  connected 
with  transmitted  words  of  Gautama-Buddha.  The 
Cosmical  had  become  to  that  extent  the  symbol  of  the 

a 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

Ethical,  that  the  son  of  the  virgin  Maya,  on  whom, 
according  to  Chinese  tradition,  '  the  Holy  Ghost '  had 
descended,  was  said  to  have  been  born  on  Christmas- 
day,  on  the  sun's  birthday,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
sun's  apparent  annual  evolution  round  the  earth.  On 
that  day,  the  sun  having  fully  entered  the  winter- 
solstice,  the  sign  of  Virgo  was  rising  on  the  Eastern  hori- 
zon (pp.  23,  24).  The  woman's  symbol  of  this  stellar  sign 
was  represented  first  with  ears  of  corn,  then  with  a 
newborn  child  in  her  arms.  Buddha  was  described  as 
a  superhuman  organ  of  light,  to  whom  a  superhuman 
organ  of  darkness,  Mara  or  Naga  the  evil  serpent,  was 
opposed  (p.  39).  Thus  also  Ormuzd,  Osiris,  Dionysos, 
and  Apollos  were  described  as  divinities  of  light,  op- 
posed by  serpent-deities  (p.  65).  Finally,  the  Virgin- 
born  Jesus  Christ,  «  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness '  (p.  307, 
note  1),  was  described  as  opposed  by  '  the  old  serpent,' 
the  Satan,  hinderer,  or  adversary. 

This  symbolism  was  connected  with  the  signs  of  the 
spring-equinox  and  of  the  autumn-equinox.  The  latter 
was  once  marked  by  the  sign  of  Scorpio  and  by  the  con- 
stellation of  the  Serpent,  which  was  represented  as  aiming 
at,  and  almost  touching  the  heel  of  the  Virgin-represen- 
tation on  the  sphere.  These  constellations  and  signs, 
especially  the  mystical  sign  of  Virgo,  have  led  man  to 
compare  with  the  cosmical  fight  between  light  and 
darkness  the  moral  fight  between  good  and  evil. 

Whether  the  nature-symbol  or  the  ethical  idea  be 
regarded  as  the  first,  the  fact  of  a  universal  revelation, 
of  a  continuity  of  Divine  influences  everywhere  and  at 
all  times,  remains  as  the  anchor  of  the  soul,  as  the 
llock  of  Ages,  on  which  Christ's  Church  will  be  built. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AND   WEST. 

PAGE 

Priestcraft  and  Magic  Art — Brahin,  Maya,  and  Bodhi — The  Eastern 
Paramita  and  the  Western  Tradition — Jainism  and  Buddhism — 
The  Sakas  and  Sakya-Muni — Records  of  Buddhistic  Tradition         .       1 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE   LEGENDS    OF   BUDDHA. 

Buddha's  birthday  on  Christinas-day — The  Messianic  Star — '  He  that 
should  come ' — Karma — Nirvana  is  the  Sun — Salvation  by  Faith — 
Incarnation  of  the  Virgin-son  by  'the  Holy  Ghost' — Krishna — 
'Birth  in  an  inn' — Heavenly  host  proclaim  joy  and  peace — Asita, 
the  Simeon  of  Buddhists — Presentation  in  the  Temple  when  twelve, 
and  public  teaching  when  thirty  years  old — Temptation  by  Satan  in 
the  wilderness — Buddha,  '  full  of  grace,'  his  body  surrounded  by  a 
1  glory/  '  fiery  tongues,'  two  men  represented  by  his  side — The 
Lamb  (Aries) — Trees  of  life  and  of  knowledge — Baptism  in  the 
holy  stream — Transfiguration,  or  '  baptism  of  fire '  on  a  mount — No 
bloody  sacrifices,  &c. — Parable  of  the  sower  and  the  tares — The 
woman  at  the  well — Promise  of  another  Buddha — Miracles  at 
Buddha's  death — The  tears  of  a  weeping  woman  had  wetted  his 
feet  before  his  death — How  to  explain  the  parallels  between 
Buddhistic  and  Christian  records — Continuity  of  Divine  influences     18 


CHAPTER  III. 

PYTHAGORAS   AND   THE   EAST. 

Introduction — Theory  on  the  Origin  of  the  Gods — Transmigration  of 
souls — Eastern  knowledge  of  Pythagoras-  -The  Goddess  Flestia — 
Pythagoras  arid  the  Dorians .         .     H'd 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   ESSEN  ES    AND    THE   EAST. 


PAGE 


Alexander,  Asoka,  and  the  Favthians,  as  pioneers  of  the  Essenes — The 
three  classes  of  the  Magi  and  the  Rabbis — Daniel  and  the  Magi  or 
Chaldseans — Probable  Essenic  origin  of  the  Massora  or  Gnosis  in 
Israel,  and  its  introduction  into  the  Septuagint         .         .         .         .77 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

Messianic  conceptions  in  East  and  AYest — The  anointed  Angel  and  the 
anointed  Man — Essenic  expectation  of  an  Angel-Messiah — The 
Eastern  source  of  that  and  similar  doctrines  explains  the  parallels 
between  the  earliest  Buddhistic  and  the  earliest  Christian  records — 
Wheu  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah  applied  to  Jesus 
Christ,  as  it  had  been  applied  to  Gautama-Buddha?         .         .         .  104 

CHAPTER  VI. 

JESES   AND    THE   ESSENES. 

The  stranger  in  Israel — Jesus  and  the  Essenes — Jesus  and  the  hidden 
wisdom — Jesus  and  the  sacrifice —Jesus  the  Messiah— Conclusion    .  138 

CHAPTER   VII. 

PAUL   AND    THE   ESSENES. 

The  Hellenists — The  person  of  Christ — Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  God — 
The  resurrection  of  Christ — Apparitions  of  Jesus  after  death — The 
day  of  Pentecost — The  Atonement—  Retrospect       ....  168 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

APOLLOS   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

Introduction — The  Christology  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews — 'The 
Highpnest  of  our  confession ' — Conclusion 241 

CHAPTER   IX. 

JAMES    AND   THE   ESSENES. 

The  Problem — The  Herodians  and  the  Essenes — The  descent  of  James 
— James  the  Nazarite  and  Highpriest — The  Epistle  of  James  .         .  261 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   GNOSIS. 

Essenic  Scriptures — The  Epistles  of  John — Retrospect — General  Con- 
clusion :  The  Roman  Church    ........  282 

APPENDIX. 

Notes  On  Farrar's  <  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul ' 379 


THE    ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

CHAPTER  I. 

BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AND   WEST, 

Priestcraft  and  Magic  Art — Brahin,  Maya,  and  Bodhi — The  Eastern  Para* 
niita  and  the  Western  Tradition — Jainism  and  Buddhism — The  Sakas 
and  Sakya-Mimi — Becords  of  Buddhistic  Tradition. 

Priestcraft  and  Magic  Art. 

Buddhistic  tradition  is  a  comparatively  late  deposit  of 
ancestorial  wisdom,  written  or  unwritten.  It  can  be 
rendered  probable,  though  it  cannot  be  proved,  that 
such  deeper  knowledge  Was  confined  to  a  select  number 
of  initiated,  among  whom  the  mysteries  were  trans- 
mitted from  one  generation  to  another;  Such  an  organi- 
sation for  the  transmission  of  knowledge  withheld  from 
the  people,  presupposes  firmly  established  priestly  insti- 
tutions and  a  secluded  mode  of  life,  regulated  by  severe 
customs.  Of  an  ascetic  system  like  this  there  is  no  trace 
among  the  East-Iranians,  who  were  the  representatives 
of  Zoroastrian  doctrines,  a  source  from  which  Buddhism 
certainly  lias  drawn.  It  is  exceedingly  strange,  that 
although  India  is  the  country  where  such  institutions 
and  customs  seem  to  have  originated,  yet  that  they 
were  not  established  there  at  the  indefinite  time  when 
the  most  ancient  Indian  records,  the  Veda,  were  com- 
posed in  the  Indus  valley,  and  before  the  Aryan  con- 
querors had  established  themselves  on  the  Ganges.  A 
comparison    of    the    Yeda    with    the    book    of   Manu, 


/ 


2  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AND   WEST. 

containing  the  sacred  law  of  the  Brahmans  on  the 
Ganges,  marks  a  peculiar  development  among  the 
Indians ;  and  we  arrive  at  a  similar  result  by  a  com- 
parison of  the  Zendavesta  with  the  books  and  rites  of 
the  Magi  or  priests  of  the  Medes  in  Mesopotamia, 
whereby  a  contrast  is  established  between  the  Iranians 
of  the  East  and  those  of  the  West. 

These  two  hotbeds  of  priestcraft,  cradles  of  hier- 
archical institutions  and  of  asceticism  in  East  and  West, 
offer  some  important  points  of  analogy,  which  render 
it  at  the  outset  not  improbable  that  there  was  some 
kind  of  connection  between  the  institutions  on  the 
banks  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  and  those  which 
prevailed  in  the  valley  of  the  Ganges.  Both  Indian 
communities,  that  on  the  Indus  and  that  on  the  Ganges, 
worshipped  Indra,  as  both  the  eastern  and  the  western 
community  of  Iranians  worshipped  Ormuzd.  Yet  the 
Aryans  on  the  Indus  must  have  despised  their  brethren 
on  the  Ganges,  as  the  East-Iranians  certainly  despised 
their  brethren,  the  Magi  or  priests  of  the  Medes,  in  the 
west  of  the  Caspian.  This  was  the  country  of  wicked 
doubt ;  where  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  instead  of  being 
burnt  in  accordance  with  East-Iranian  custom,  were 
buried  in  the  earth,  thus  desecrating  it.  Such  separate 
development  and  antagonism  is  all  the  more  significant, 
since  the  Medes  were  once  all  Aryans,  and  since  they 
continued  in  the  West  to  venerate  the  symbolism  of  the 
East-Iranians.  Thus  a  system  of  dualism  had  sprung 
up,  which  in  its  popular  form  and  interpretation  mili- 
tated against  the  monotheism  of  the  Ormuzd  religion, 
although  the  Magi  recognised  the  same.  The  con- 
sideration of  this  parallel  development  among  the 
Eastern  Indians  and  among  the  Western  Iranians  is  a 
necessary  introduction  to  the  history  of  the  origin  and 
propagation  of  Buddhism. 

'The  highest  development  of  the  Brahmanic  system 
is  based  on  the  diametrical  contrast  of  body  and  soul,  of 


ASCETICISM   OF   BRAHMANS  AXD   MAGI.  3 

matter  and  spirit.     Considering  the  body  as  impure  by 
itself,  Brahmanism  was  forced  to  set  up,  not  only  the 
demand  of  a  continuous  taming  and  subjecting  of  sensu- 
ality by  the  spirit,  but  to  declare,  in  the  last  instance,  the 
destruction  of  the  body  as  the  only  true  purity.     From 
this   theory,  followed,  practically,  the  injuring   of  the 
body  by  ascetic  impossibilities.     The  Zendavesta  does 
not    know  these   premises.      The    Zendavesta   likewise 
separates  body  and  soul,  the  spiritual  from  the  material 
world ;  also  it  is  not  wanting  in  abstraction,  and  those 
hosts   of  spirits  who   people  heaven   are,  if  taken  by 
themselves,  in  part  very  deep-meaning  conceptions   of 
spiritual   powers,   although    from  the   standpoint  of  a 
natural  and  poetical  religious  spirit  they  are  pale  alle- 
gories.   But  the  Indian  antagonism  between  the  spiritual 
and  the  bodily  world  is  unknown  to  the  Zendavesta. 
The  pure  and  holy  spirits  have  created  the  world  of  the 
senses,  not  in  order  to  entangle  man  in  darkness  and 
evil,  but  in  order  to  give  him  life  and  prosperity.    Here 
the   evil  is  limited  to  only  one  side  of  this  world  of 
senses,  to  darkness,  drought,  desert,  and  death  ;  whilst 
in  India  the  evil  spreads  over  the  whole  matter,  and 
this  bad  side  of  nature  has  not  emanated  from  the  pure 
but  from  the  impure  spirits.     Since,  according  to  the 
Zendavesta,  only  a  part  of  nature  is  separated  as  evil, 
man  has  not  to  put  off  his  entire  nature,  but  to  rejoice 
in  the  good   side   of  it,  to  strengthen  the  same  in  and 
around  himself,  and  to  observe  a  defensive,  guarding, 
and  fighting   attitude   against  the   evil  side   of  nature 
only.    Thus  self-preservation,  instead  of  self-destruction, 
is  set  up  for  man  as  his  aim  and  end  :  thus  practical  and 
obtainable  objects  are  held  out  to  man ;  thus  are  given 
the  conditions  of  a  healthy  and  active  human  existence, 
which  have  led  to  other  results,  than  those  to  which 
Indians  have  been  led  by  the  contemplation,  the  quietism, 
the  monkish  asceticism,  and  the  relapses  into  sensuous 
excesses  which  are  inseparably  connected  with  the  former. 


4  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AND   WEST. 

In  Iran  no  supernatural  purity  at  the  cost  of  life  was 
aimed  at,  as  in  India ;  in  Iran  purity  was  practised  in 
order  to  live,  in  order  not  to  be  harmed  and  killed  by 
the  Daeva  (or  evil  spirit),  but  not  in  order  to  die  as  in 
India.' 1 

Among  the  Brahmans  as  among  the  Magi  the  inter- 
vention and  mediation  of  priests  was  held  to  be  neces- 
sary, and  even  in  the  law-book  of  Manu,  still  more  in 
the  later  Sutras  or  theological  heirlooms,  with  their 
higher  development  of  the  ceremonial,  the  laity  was 
absolutely  excluded  from  every  active  participation  in 
the  sacred  rites.  In  Hymns  of  the  Eig-Veda  are  already 
mentioned  priests  on  whose  prayers  victory  was  considered 
to  depend .  Contrariwise,  the  hymns  attributed  to  Zoroaster 
know  only  of  holy  rites  performed  by  pure  men,  and 
even  the  East-Iranian  later  tradition,  which  was  recorded 
in  the  Zendavesta  after  the  recognition  of  an  order  of 
priests,  admits  by  the  side  of  the  Atharva,  or  fire-priests, 
all  '  pure  men '  to  the  performance  of  holy  rites.  The 
name  Magi,  by  which  the  West-Iranian  priests  were 
called,  is  unknown  to  the  ancient  parts  of  the  Zendavesta. 
We  know  of  no  Medes  without  Magi,  and  it  is  probable 
though  not  provable,  that  the  Median  conquerors  of 
Mesopotamia,  the  Casdim  or  Chaldeans,  in  the  year 
B.C.  2458,  already  had  Magi  as  priests.  For  already  in 
the  time  of  Dejokes,  since  B.C.  711,  the  Magi  are  con- 
nected with  an  old-established  institution  ;  whilst  in  the 
Book  of  Daniel  the  Magi  are  identified  with  the  Chal- 
deans. Cyrus  introduced  or  recognised  the  Magi  among 
the  Persians  ;  yet  these  always  regarded  the  Medes  and 
Magi  as  their  enemies,  and  the  rule  of  Pseudo-Smerdis 
is  represented  as  an  attempt  of  the  Magi  to  set  up 
Median  instead  of  Persian  rule. 

The  Brahimtnic  and  the  Magian  systems  of  religion 
both  required  the  mediation  of  priests  as  organs  of  the 
supernatural  power  Maya  or  Maga  ;  and  these  institu- 

1  Duncker,  Gcschichte  des  Alterthuma  \\.,  387-388. 


BLOODY    SACRIFICES.  5 

tions  on  the  Ganges  and  Euphrates  were  based  on  the 
most  ancient  ancestorial  rite  of  invoking  the  aid  of  good 
spirits  against  evil  spirits.  This  would  naturally  lead 
to  the  offering  of  bloody  sacrifices  as  a  means  of  recon- 
ciling the  offended  deity.  Human  sacrifices  and  animal 
sacrifices  for  the  purpose  of  atonement  had  prevailed  in 
the  earliest  historical  times  among  the  Hamitic  or  non- 
Aryan  races  in  East  and  West.  By  an  ethnological  and 
geographical  explanation  of  the  10th  chapter  of  Genesis, 
the  Hamites,  probably  once  an  unmixed  black-skinned 
race,  can  be  shown  to  have  spread  from  India,  by 
Arabia,  Egypt,  Nubia,  and  Canaan,  to  Mesopotamia,  as 
the  earliest  historical  inhabitants  of  the  West,  an  indefi- 
nite time  before  that  country  was  conquered,  according 
to  Berosus  in  B.C.  2458,  by  the  Medo-Chaldeans.  It  is 
provable  that  the  mixed  race  of  Iranian  conquerors  of 
Babylon  and  non-Iranian,  probably  Indian,  builders  of 
Babylon,  that  the  first  so-called  Semitic  nation  of  the 
West  which  rose  to  political  power x  did  not  abolish  the 
bloody  sacrifices,  especially  those  at  the  time  of  the 
spring-equinox.  Gradually  animals  were  substituted 
for  human  beings.  It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind, 
that  these  West-Iranian  worshippers  of  Ormuzd,  the 
Median  conquerors  or  Chaldeans  of  Mesopotamia  in  the 
third  pre-Christian  millennium,  did  not  teach,  like  their 
Zoroastrian  brethren  in  the  East,  that  bloody  sacrifices 
are  an  abomination  to  the  God  of  light  and  truth. 

The  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead  and  the  Mesopota- 
mian  books  on  magic  prove  that  in  both  countries 
magic  art  existed  in  remote  ages.     Copies  of  the  Chal- 

1  Shem's  birth,  wliich  we  explain  ethnically,  was  by  Israelites  held  to 
have  taken  place  in  the  year  of  this  Median  conquest,  in  B.C.  2458  ;  for,  ac- 
cording to  Genesis,  Shem  was  an  hundred  years  old  '  two  years  after  the 
flood  '  (xi.  10),  and  the  year  of  the  Noachian  flood  was  by  the  Hebrews, 
according  to  Censorinus  and  Varro,  computed  to  have  been  B.C.  2360  (E.  de 
Bunsen,  The  Chronology  of  the  Bible,  p.  11),  Japhet  +  Ham  =  Shem.  In  fact, 
Japhet  did  dwell  '  in  the  tents  of  Shem,'  and  Canaan  the  Ilamite  was  his 
servant  or  slave.     The  Casdim  were  Medes  and  became  Shemites. 


6  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION    IN    EAST   AXD   WEST. 

dean  work  on  magic  were  placed  in  the  library  of  the 
famous  school  for  priests  at  Erech  (Huruk  ?)  near  Ur, 
the  present  Mngheir,  in  the  low  country  near  the 
Persian  Gulf.  Magic  rites  and  the  worship  of  elements 
can  be  proved  to  have  preceded  in  Mesopotamia  the 
connection  of  deities  with  stars,  and  therefore  to  have 
preceded  the  solar  symbolism  for  a  longer  time.  Yet 
sidereal  religion  prevailed  in  this  country  before  the 
invention  of  writing,  since  the  earliest  symbol  of  a  deity 
known  to  us  wTas  a  star.  Thus  the  deity  Sibut,  pro- 
bably connected  with  the  Pleiades,  is  determined  by  a 
star  with  the  number  seven  by  its  side.  Already,  about 
B.C.  2000,  Sargon  I.  compiled  his  astrological  work, 
which  began  with  collections  of  liturgical  hymns  and 
magical  formulas.1  The  sacrifice  of  children  in  Meso- 
potamia  is  by  Inscriptions  proved  to  have  taken  place 
before  the  time  of  Abraham,2  and  the  belief  in  the 
atoning  virtue  of  such  offerings  for  sin  must  have  been 
preceded  by  a  belief  in  the  virtue  of  magic  rites.  We 
are  thus  enabled  to  assert,  that  magic  rites  were  in- 
troduced into  Mesopotamia  an  indefinite  time  before 
Abraham. 

Even  in  much  later  times,  the  Mesopotamian  magician 
Balaam  commenced  his  rite  by  sacrifice.  The  Mosaic 
law  forbids  practisers  of  divinations,  workers  of  hidden 
arts,  augurers,  enchanters,  fabricators  of  charms,  in- 
quirers by  a  familiar  spirit,  wizards  or  consulters  of 
the  dead,  and  the  law  couples  with  these  ancient  magic 
rites  the  condemnation  of  sons  and  daughters  bein^ 
offered  by  fire.  Abraham  himself,  the  son  of  Terah, 
was  by  Arabian  tradition  said  to  have  been  a  maker  of 
idols  or  teraphim,  such  as  existed  in  the  family  of 
Laban,  who  even  called  them  his  gods,  as  Micah,  the 
Levite,  did  later.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the 
Egyptians  connected  their    magic    figure   or  mummy, 

1  Lenormant,  Chaldean  Magic  (Cooper's  edition),  pp.  333,  3G9,  Note  1. 
%  Sayce,  Trans.  Bibl.  Arch.  iv.  1. 


TEEATI    AND    THE    TERAniBf.  7 

their  Shebtee,  with  the  word  '  Ter,'  which  in  the  pre- 
Semitic  language  of  Egypt  seems  to  have  denoted  an 
idol,  what  the  Hebrews  called  a  ter  a.  This  probability 
is  almost  raised  to  a  certainty  by  the  Arabian  tradition 
just  mentioned,  which  connects  the  son  of  Terah,  a  wor- 
shipper of  strange  gods,  according  to  a  Mosaic  scripture, 
with  teraphim  or  idols  of  his  making.  For  the  origin 
of  such  tradition  would  be  inexplicable  if  the  word 
'  ter '  had  not  at  some  early  time  designated  an  idol  in 
Arabian.  This  it  certainly  did  in  Egyptian,  and  also  in 
Hebrew,  as  the  word  '  teraphim  '  denotes.  The  Egyptian 
word  '  ter  '  signifies  a  shape,  type,  transformation,  and 
has  for  its  determinative  a  mummy ;  it  is  used  in  the 
Eittial,  where  the  various  transformations  of  the  de- 
ceased in  Hades  are  described.  The  small  mummy - 
shaped  figure,  Shebtee,  usually  made  of  baked  clay 
covered  with  a  blue  vitreous  varnish,  representing  the 
Egyptian  as  deceased,  is  of  a  nature  connecting  it  with 
magic,  since  it  was  made  with  the  idea  that  it  secured 
benefits  in  Hades.  It  is  connected  with  the  word  '  ter,' 
for  it  represents  a  mummy,  the  determinative  of  that 
word,  and  was  considered  to  be  of  use  in  the  state  in 
which  the  deceased  passed  through  transformations, 
4  term' 1 

The  belief  in  one  God  was  probably  imported  into 
the  West  by  the  Medo-Chaldean  conquerors  who  lived 
in  Ur-Casdim  in  the  time  of  Terah  and  his  ancestors. 
This  belief  would  by  the  Hebrew  of  later  times  be 
opposed  to  the  worship  of  '  other  gods,'  symbolised  by 
teraphim  or  idols.  Joshua  declared  Terah  to  have  been 
such  a  worshipper  of  other  gods,  and  the  name  Terah 
points  to  the  teraphim  or  idols,  which  also  his  son 
Abram  is  said  to  have  made  according  to  the  Arabian 
tradition  already  referred  to.  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God 
of  Israel,  Your  fathers  dwelt  on  the  other  side  of  the 

1  R.  S.  Poole,  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  '  Magic,' 


8  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION    IN    EAST    AND    WEST. 

flood  in  old  time,  even  Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham, 
and  the  father  of  Nachor:  and  they  served  other  gods.' 
This  statement  of  Joshua  confirms  that  of  Moses,  whose 
mother's  name,  Jokhebed,  is  a  compound  of  the  Jeho- 
vistic  form  '  Jo,'  and  to  whom  God  revealed  his  name 
Jehovah,  saying  that  by  this  name  he  '  was  not  known  ' 
to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  to  whom  he  appeared 
by  the  name  of  El-Shaddai — God  Almighty — literally, 
'  God  Powerful.'  Another  passage  shows  that  Abram 
8  lifted  up  his  hand,'  and  swore,  or  literally  '  did  seven,' 
by  Eljun  or  El-On,  God  the  Highest.1 

It  may,  therefore,  be  now  asserted,  that  magic  art 
was  established  in  Mesopotamia  an  indefinite  time  be- 
fore Terah,  who  lived,  if  the  transmitted  year  B.C.  23G0 
was  the  year  of  the  Flood,  from  B.C.  2138-1933.  We 
may  go  further  and  safely  assume  that  the  invocation 
of  spirits,  perhaps  originally  the  worship  of  ancestors, 
was  connected  with  the  worship  of  elements  and  of 
stars,  and  that  what  sooner  or  later  was  called  '  magic 
art '  had  preceded  the  capture  of  Babylon,  in  B.C.  2458, 
by  the  Mecles.  For  the  purpose  here  in  view  it  is 
enough  to  have  pointed  out  that  magic  art  existed  in 
Mesopotamia  before  the  time  of  Terah,  who  4  served 
other  gods.' 

Many  centuries  before  the  Vedic  Hymns  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  written,  in  which  there  is  no  trace 
of  priestcraft  or  magic  art,  the  latter,  whether  under 
that  name  or  not,  was  established  in  the  West,  possibly 
seventeen  centuries  earlier  than  the  generally  assumed 
date  when  the  Vedic  Hymns  were  recorded.  The 
Aryans  on  the  Indus  neither  imported  any  magic  art 

1  Josh.  xxiv.  2;  Ex.  vi.  2;  Gen.  xiv.  19-22;  comp.  Deut.  xxxii.  6; 
Prov.  viii.  22  ;  Ps.  cxix.  13.  The  name  Osiris,  derived  from  Wasar,  means 
il"'  elevated  one  or  'the  Highest,'  like  the  name  Zeus  of  Homer  and 
Hyperion  of  Hesiodus.  All  these  names  of  divinities  can  be  connected,  like 
Sibut~Sebaot,  with  the  Pleiades,  so  that  the  'sevening'of  Abram  may  be 
referred  to  the  god  dwelling  in  this  constellation  of  seven  stars  (See  our 
Die  Tlejaden  und  der  Y'/mr/.rm,  80-81  &c.) 


THE    LORD    OF    PRAYER.  0 

from  the  North-west,  nor  acknowledged  the  same  among 
the  subjugated  non-Aryan  population  on  the  Indus. 
The  aborigines  of  India  may,  however,  be  assumed  to 
have  long  before  the  Aryan  conquest  worshipped  ele- 
ments, stars,  and  constellations,  if  not  ancestors,  and  to 
have  invoked  good  spirits  against  evil  ones.  What  was 
sooner  or  later  in  the  West  called  '  magic  art '  was  pro- 
bably on  the  Ganges  in  after- Yedic  and  Brahmanic 
times  connected  with  the  Brahm,  or  spiritual  power, 
which  was  only  another  name  for  the  Maya  of  the 
Buddhists. 

Brahm,  Maya,  and  Bodhi. 

It  remains  quite  uncertain  at  what  time  previous  to 
the  publication  of  the  Law-book  of  Manu  (about  B.C. 
700  ? )  the  Indian  asceticism  arose  which  was  connected 
with  the    name  of  Brahma.      The    higher   being  who 
represents  this  divine  power,  or  the  Brahm,  that  is,  the 
divine  mediator,  the  Brahma,  who  hears  man  praying 
by  this    divine    guide,  was    called   Brahmanaspati,   or 
6  lord  of  prayer.'     Even  the  highest  God  was  regarded 
as  an  organ  of  this  holy  and  eternal  Brahm,  and  man 
can,  though  the  same,  secure  the  answer  to  his  prayer, 
even  immortality,  for  the  spiritual  power  connects  him 
with  higher  organs  of  the  same.1     The  conception  of 
this    Brahm  as   the  holy  spirit  of  both  worlds    is  es- 
sentially identical  with    the   conception    of  the   Maya 
or    spiritual   power.      It    can    now  be    shown,    as   we 
shall  see,  that  this  supernatural  or  spiritual  power  is 
recorded    to    have    descended  as    '  Holy  Ghost '    upon 
Maya,  the  virgin-mother  of  Gautama-Buddha.     It  may 
be    safely  assumed    that    the   Magi  in   the  West  were 
aboriginally  so   called   after   the  Maga  or  Maya ;   and 
it  is  quite  possible  that  the  Median  tribe  of  the  Budii 

1  Comp.  Dimeter,  I.  c.  ii.  05,  GO  ;  Spiegel,  Z&ndavesta,  Yagna,  xix.  10-29; 
32,  35. 


10  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AXD   WEST. 

were  so  called  after  the  Bodhi  or  Wisdom  taught  on  the 
Ganges. 

The  Bodhi,  Wisdom  from  above,  or  Tradition  from 
beyond,  must  be  connected  if  not  identified  with  the 
spiritual  power  or  Maya,  and  thus  with  the  universal 
spirit  or  Brahm.  It  has  been  well  said,  that  '  Gautama's 
whole  training  was  Brahmanism  :  he  probably  deemed 
himself  to  be  the  most  correct  exponent  of  the  spirit, 
as  distinct  from  the  letter,  of  ancient  faith ;  and  it  can 
only  be  claimed  for  him  that  he  was  the  greatest  and 
wisest  and  best  of  the  Hindus.' x  Yet  we  shall  point 
out,  that  there  is  sufficient  reason  to  regard  him  as  a 
non-Indian  by  descent.  His  probable  connection  with 
the  East-Iranians  is  confirmed  by  the  presumable  fact, 
that  the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster  were  as  well  known  by 
Gautama  as  by  the  initiated  Hindus,  though  they  hid 
this  knowledge  more  or  less  from  the  people.  As  the  in- 
carnation of  the  celestial  Buddha  was  effected  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  so  it  was  this  spiritual  power,  Maya  or 
Brahm,  which  enlightened  Gautama,  and  made  him  the 
human  organ  of  the  celestial  Bodhi  or  Wisdom.  The 
meaning  of  the  word  '  Buddh,'  or  '  Bodh,'  corresponds 
with  that  of  the  Sanscrit  Yid,  from  which  the  name 
Yeda  is  derived.  '  Yeda  '  means  knowledge,  and  '  Bodhi ' 
means  wisdom.  It  seems  that  Gautama-Buddha  was 
initiated  in  the  secret  tradition  of  this  Bodhi ;  but 
there  are  only  few  traces  in  Buddhistic  writings  of  such 
a  hidden  wisdom,  and  they  leave  it  uncertain  whether 
the  novitiate  of  the  later  disciples  dates  from  the  time 
of  Gautama.  We  know,  however,  that  not  all  his  self- 
chosen  disciples  were  beggars  or  Bhikshus,  though 
Sramans,  or  tamers  of  the  senses.  Their  instruction 
varied  probably  in  kind  and  quantity,  according  to 
their  individual  capabilities.  Gautama  was  only  accom- 
panied by  five  disciples,  when  he  underwent  a  severe 
probation  of  six  years. 

1  Ilhys  Davids,  Buddhism,  85. 


THE   WISDOM    FROM    ABOVE.  11 

The  Eastern  Pdramita  and  the  Western  Tradition. 

The  Buddhists  distinguish  two  classes  of  tradition. 
They  divide  their  theological  heirlooms,  in  a  restricted 
sense  the  transmitted  sayings  of  Buddha,  into  Sutras  of 
the  great  and  of  the  small  chariot,  thus  distinguishing 
the  Mahay  ana  from  the  Hinayana.1  Possibly  the  chariot 
of  tradition,  or  conveyance  of  enlightenment,  referred 
to  the  sun,  which  is  already  in  the  Veda  and  Zendavesta 
connected  with  horses,  whilst  before  the  Babylonian 
captivity,  chariots  and  horses  of  the  sun  were  regarded 
as  symbols  of  the  Deity  by  some  of  the  Israelites  in 
Jerusalem.  From  indeterminable  times  the  chariot  of 
the  sun-god  Apollos  was  represented  as  drawn  by  four 
horses. 

The  Hebrew  word  for  chariot,  Bechab,  from  which 
the  name  of  the  Eechabites  ^(Essenes  ?)  is  derived,  is  of 
Iranian  origin,  and  it  forms  part  of  the  word  Merkabah, 
by  which  the  unwritten  tradition  or  gnosis  of  the 
Israelites  was  designated.  The  first  part  of  the  holy 
Merkabah  was  called  '  The  History  of  Creation,'  and 
the  second  part,  '  The  History  of  the  Chariot.'  This 
twofold  division  in  the  record  of  Hebrew  tradition  may 
be  compared  with  the  twofold  division  in  the  records 
of  Buddhistic  tradition,  that  is,  with  the  Sutras  of  the 
great  and  of  the  small  chariot.  The  Buddhists  who 
belong  to  the  higher  grades  of  initiation  in  the  mysteries 
of  tradition,  know  and  revere  the  Prashna  Paramita, 
literally  the  science,  wisdom,  or  tradition  'from  beyond.' 
Whilst  Prashna  means  knowledge,  wisdom,  or  Bodhi, 
Paramita  means  brought  '  from  beyond.'  The  w^ord  is 
derived  from '  para '  and  '  ita,'  the  former  meaning  'across,' 
over,  or  beyond,'  and   the  latter  word  is  formed  after 

1  In  course  of  time  the  Northern  Buddhists  called  their  developed  tradi- 
tion the  Mahayaua,  inasmuch  as  it  differed  from  the  shorter  tradition  of  the 
Southern  Buddhists,  which  their  rivals  called  the  Hinayana.  The  Lamaism 
of  Thibet  is  the  very  opposite  of  original  Buddhism,  and  may  be  connected 
with  the  schism  created  by  Gautama's  cousin  Pevadatta. 


12  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AND   WEST. 

'  emi,'  to  go.1  The  Latin  word  traditio  has  absolutely 
the  same  meaning,  being  a  composite  of  trans,  across, 
over,  beyond,  and  ire,  to  go. 

Thus  a  connection  is  established  between  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Western  word  '  tradition  '  and  the  meaning  of 
the  Eastern  word  '  paramita,'  as  also  between  the  Hebrew 
word  '  merkabah  '  for  the  unwritten  tradition,  and  the 
Sutras,  the  once  unwritten  tradition  of  the  Buddhists, 
and  of  the  Jainists,  who  preceded  them.  But  as  it  is 
non-proven  that  the  new  elements  of  tradition  intro- 
duced by  Jews  after  the  return  from  Babylon,  had  been 
already  by  Moses  transmitted  to  the  elders,  and  by 
them  to  future  generations,  so  it  is  not  provable  that 
the  followers  of  Buddha  were  in  possession  of  a  hidden 
wisdom,  verbally  transmitted  by  Buddha,  and  even  by 
those  who  preceded  him,  in  promulgating  a  Zoroastrian 
tradition.  The  Buddhistic  Paramita  or  tradition  was 
designated  as  '  from  beyond,'  no  doubt  in  order  to 
point  to  the  super-terrestrial  and  supernatural  origin  of 
its  contents.  It  was,  as  we  shall  see,  the  wisdom  from 
above,  brought  down  by  the  Angel-Messiah,  the  bringer 
of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

Jainism  and  Buddhism. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Buddhism  which  was  con- 
nected with  Gautama,  constitutes  a  late  development  of 
Jainism.2  According  to  Jainas  and  Buddhists,  the 
words  Jina  and  Buddha  have  the  same  meaning ;  and 
the  last  of  the  twenty-four  Jaina  Tirthankaras  or 
Buddhas,  called  Mahavira,  who  died  527  B.C.,  is  stated 
to  have  been  the  teacher  of  the  Gautama  of  the 
Jainists,  who  is  also  the  Gautama  of  the  Buddhists. 
But  Gautama,  who  seems  by  some  of  his  followers  to 
have  been  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  deified  saint,  was  not 
recognised  by  the  Jainas  as  a  Buddha.     One  and  the 

1  Beal,  Buddhist  Pilgrims,  59. 

2  Thomas,  Jainism,  or  the  Early  Faith  o/Asoka. 


gautama's  descent.  is 

same  person  was    by  some  in  India   regarded    as  an 
anointed  man,  by  others  as  an  anointed  angel. 

The  five  duties  of  Jainism  are  :  mercy  to  all  animated 
beings,  almsgiving,  venerating  the  sages  while  living 
and  worshipping  their  images  when  deceased,  confession 
of  faults,  and  religions  fasting.  The  five  sins  are  :  killing, 
lying,  stealing,  adultery,  worldly-mindedness.  Only  the 
first  five  of  the  ten  commandments  of  the  Buddhists 
are  by  the  text  referred  back  to  Gautama  himself,  and 
they  forbid  to  kill  that  which  has  life,  to  steal,  to  lie, 
to  drink  intoxicating  liquors,  and  to  commit  unchaste 
acts.1  The  nude  statues  of  Jaina  saints  or  Arhats  have 
been  connected  with  the  Buddhist  ascetics,  whom  the 
Chinese  pilgrim,  Hiouen  Thsang,  in  the  seventh  century 
of  our  era,  designated  as  a  Buddhist  sect  in  India. 
They  did  not  entirely  shave  their  heads,  and  walked 
naked,  except  when  they  wore  a  white  covering,  perhaps 
only  during  the  performance  of  certain  rites.  So  also 
the  nude  representations  of  Vittal  or  Vithoba,  who  in 
the  Dekkan  is  held  to  be  an  avatar  of  Siva,  have  been 
compared  with  the  normal  ideals  of  the  Jaina  statues, 
as  preserved  by  the  sculptured  monuments  of  Mathura, 
with  their  appropriate  devotional  dedications  by  the 
votaries  of  the  Jaina  faith,  '  at  or  about  the  commence- 
ment of  our  era.' 2 


The  Sahas  and  Sdkya-Muni. 

The  Vittal  or  Viddhal  to  whom  Buddhistic  Scriptures 
refer,  are  supposed  to  have  been  connected  with  the 
Ephthalites,  or  White  Huns  of  the  Byzantines.8  The 
Huns  had  still  in  late  times  white  and  black  tribes,  and 
the  Ephthalites  came  from  the  Oxus  and  Indus.     The 

1  The  number  five  is  provably  a  more  ancient  nature-symbol  than  the 
number  ten. 

8  Thomas,  I.  c.  79-82. 

3  Mr.  Wylie,  cited  in  Baal's  Buddhist  Tripitaka  of  China  and  Japan, 
p.  117. 


14  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AND   WEST. 

Hindus  referred  the  name  Huns  to  Thibetan  tribes, 
and  they  were  perhaps  called  Huns  after  Thibet.  This 
name  the  Mahomedans  have  introduced,  and  the  country 
of  Thibet  is  still  called  Huncles,  the  word  being  pro- 
bably derived  from  Hyun-des,  which  means  snow-land, 
like  Himalaya,  Iniaus,  and  Emans.1  The  white  or 
Aryan  Huns  were  always  distinguished  from  the  bar- 
barous so-called  Scythian  or  Sarmatian  Huns.2  The 
Aryan  Huns  were  probably  a  cognate  race  with  the 
Royal  tribe  (Amyrgian  Scythians  ?)  whom  Herodotus 
distinguishes  among  the  so-called  Scythians  or  Sacas, 
the  Haka  of  the  Chinese,  and  the  Saka  of  Persian 
Inscriptions,  whose  principal  seats  seem  to  have  been 
near  the  Oxus, 

Like  the  Saka,  the  Parthians  were,  in  part,  perhaps 
chiefly  Iranian  Aryans.  But  the  Parthians,  the  Parthwa 
in  Inscriptions  of  Persian  kings,  when  first  mentioned 
by  the  Greeks,  lived  nearer  to  the  Medes,  to  the  east  of 
them.  Where  the  Parthians  originally  came  from  is 
uncertain,  but  it  is  not  improbable  that  they  had  crossed 
the  Indian  frontier  and  lived  in  Iran  as  strangers.  For 
Justin  states  that  their  name  was  derived  from  the 
Sanscrit  Pardes,  which  means  i  of  another  country,'  or 
'  the  country  from  beyond,'  whilst  in  Iranian  (Zend) 
Parda,  like  the  Sanscrit  Parada,  means  a  person  who 
has  come  across  the  border.3 

1  Markham  on  '  Bogle  in  Thibet,'  and  the  article  '  Tibet,'  in  the  Times, 
May  15,  1876. 

2  With  'Hun'  the  name  Hun(g")ari  may  have  been  connected,  as  in  like 
manner  the  name  of  the  Gipsies,  the  Zigauner,  Zingari,  or  Singari,  seems  to 
have  been  a  compound  of  Seind-Ari,  which  is  still  a  local  name  in  India. 
For  their  national  name  Sinte  (also  Itoma)  points  to  Scindia,  Hindia,  or 
India.  It  is  certain  from  their  language  that  the  Gipsies  are  descended  from 
Indian  Aryans,  that  they  are,  as  their  name  Singari  implies,  Seind-Ari ;  and 
the  dispersion  of  the  Gipsies  has  been  identified  with  the  chastisement  of 
the  Jat-tribes  on  the  Indus  by  the  Sultan  of  Ghazni,  in  the  year  a.d.  1025. 
{Edinburgh  Review,  July,  1878).  Also  the  name  Ar-Sakes  probably  points 
to  the  Aryans  among  the  Saka. 

3  Benfey,  in  Berliner  Jahrbiicher,  1842  ;  Spiegel's  Bran,  105.    The  name 


THE    LALITA-VISTARA.  15 

About  the  year  600  B.C.  the  so-called  Scythians,  or 
rather  Sakas,  made  their  inroads  into  India  from  the 
North,  and  gradually  advanced  to  Mesopotamia  and 
Asia  Minor.  '  King  of  the  Sakas  '  was  still  in  the  first 
pre-Christian  century  a  title  in  Northern  India.1  From 
these  Iranian  Sakas  was  most  probably  descended 
Sakya-  or  Gautama-Buddha.  Had  the  Sakas  been 
natives  of  India  it  would  be  difficult  to  explain  the  fact 
that  no  Indian  documents,  except  Buddhistic  writings, 
ever  mention  them.  The  Sakya-prince  is  described 
as  an  Aryan  by  Buddhistic  tradition.  His  face  was 
reddish,  his  hair  of  light  colour  and  curly,  his  general 
appearance  of  great  beauty.  He  married  a  wife  from 
his  own  kin  ;  and  in  harmony  with  the  rites  of  Northern 
tribes,  he  was  interred  under  a  mound  surrounded  by 
stones.2 

Records  of  Buddhistic  Tradition. 

Which  were  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  '  Tra- 
dition from  beyond,'  said  to  have  been  promulgated  by 
Gautama,  according  to  the  most  ancient  records  known 
to  us  of  the  life  of  Buddha  ?  We  now  possess  a  Chinese 
translation  of  a  Sanscrit  work  on  the  life  of  Buddha, 
which  is  remarkable  for  brevity  and  completion.  It  is 
probably — in  some  of  its  essential  parts  at  least — a 
translation  of  the  original  work  or  copy  from  which 
the  expanded  version  was  made,  known  in  Thibet  and 
China  under  the  title  '  Lalita-Vistara,'  or  Ta-Chwang- 
yen,  '  great  magnificence.'  This  primitive  work,  known 
under  two  forms  of  the  same  title,  was  translated  into 
Chinese  from  Sanscrit,  by  a  priest  called  Chu-fa-lan,  as 

Hebrews,  or  people  from  "beyond  (like  '  Saracens '  ?),  has  the  same  meaning  aa 
Parthians.  The  Aryan  word  Pardes  occurs  in  the  Song  of  Solomon,  in 
Ecclesiastic  us,  and  Xehemiah.  The  authors  of  the  Septuagint,  who  like 
Ezekiel  (xxviii.  13,  14)  connected  Eden  with  the  East,  have  formed  from 
Pardes,  or  from  the  Sanscrit  Paradeca,  '  highland,'  the  word  Paradise. 

1  Beal,  On  Buddhism,  Orient,  v.  47  f. 

2  Tercy  Gardner,  Numismatic  Chronicle,  vol.  xiv.  161-1G7, 


1G  BUDDHISTIC   TRADITION   IN   EAST   AXD   WEST. 

earl}7  as  the  eleventh  year  of  the  reign  of  Wing-ping 
(Ming-ti)  of  the  Han  dynasty,  that  is,  69  or  70  a.d. 
'  We  may,  therefore,'  says  Professor  Beal,  '  safely  sup- 
pose that  the  original  work  was  in  circulation  in  India 
for  some  time  previous  to  this  date.' 

He  adds,  '  The  (Buddhistic)  books  found  in  China 
afford  us  a  consecutive  catena  of  writings  dating  from 
at  least  B.C.  100  to  a.d.  600.'  In  the  Chinese  copy  of 
the  Dhammapada  or  '  Parables  illustrating  scriptural 
extracts  or  verses,'  composed  by  Arya  Dharmatrata, 
that  is  Yasamitra,  about  B.C.  40,1  is  the  Sutra  alluded 
to  by  Asoka  in  the  stone-cut  Bhabra  edict,  and 
known  as  Gautama's  exhortation  to  his  son  Eahula 
against  falsehood.2  It  is  therefore  now  proved  that  we 
possess  a  Chinese  Buddhistic  writing,  part  of  which 
points  back  to  the  time  of  Asoka,  who  ascended  the 
throne  B.C.  268,  and  convoked  the  general  council  at 
Patna  in  B.C.  250. 

This  newly  ascertained  fact  gains  in  importance 
when  we  consider  that  the  stone-cut  Bhabra  edict  refers 
to  then  existing  records  of  well  authenticated  words 
of  Buddha,  and  that  the  first  Buddhist  missionaries 
whom  Asoka  sent  to  China,  where  they  are  still  re- 
verenced as  saints,  can  now  be  asserted  to  have  intro- 
duced into  this  country  these  records  of  the  divine 
Buddha's  sayings  to  which  Asoka's  stone- cut  edict 
refers.  It  becomes  therefore  increasingly  probable 
that  the  stone-cut  representations  on  the  gateway  of 
the  Buddhist  monument  called  the  Sanchi  Tope,  pro- 
bably copied  from  earlier  Avooden  representations,  and 

1  According  to  Eitel,  Vasamitra  '  took  a  principal  part  in  the  last  revi- 
sion of  the  Canon,  as  the  President  of  the  Synod  under  Kanishka.'  If  the 
latter's  date  is  about  B.C.  40,  that  of  Dharmatrata  would  be  about 
B.C.  70. 

2  Beal,  The  Romantic  History  of  Buddha,  p.  vi. ;  The  Dhammapada, 
p.  xi.  The  reference  to  the  Bhabra  edict  was  first  announced  by  Mr.  Beal, 
in  a  lecture  delivered  by  him  since  the  publication  of  the  Dhammapada 
(1878). 


AUTHENTICATED   WORDS   OF   BUDDHA.  17 

which  refer   to   subjects  treated  by  Buddhist  legends, 
date  from  a  pre-Christian  time.1 

A  considerable  part  of  the  Buddhist  legends  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  the  most  ancient  Buddhist  literature 
may  be  safely  asserted  to  date  back  to  pre-Christian 
times.  This  will  become  a  certainty  if  we  succeed  in 
proving  that  the  foreign  elements  represented  by  Jewish 
Essenes  in  pre-Christian  times  are  in  part,  if  not  chiefly, 
Buddhistic.  What  was  known  in  Judaea  more  than 
a  century  before  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  cannot 
have  been  introduced  among  Buddhists  by  Chris- 
tian missionaries.  It  will  become  equally  certain  that 
the  bishop  and  church-historian  Eusebius  was  right 
when  he  wrote,  that  he  considered  it  '  highly  probable ' 
that  the  writings  of  the  Essenic  Therapeuts  in  Egypt 
had  been  incorporated  into  our  Gospels  and  into  some 
Pauline  Epistles. 

1  As  asserted  by  General  Cunningham,  an  opinion  shared  by  the  author 
of  the  Guide  Book  to  the  Kensington  Museum,  where  a  representation  of 
this  monument  can  be  seen.  The  brick  tope  is  traced  to  the  years  B.C.  500- 
443,  the  surrounding  structure  to  B.C.  260,  and  the  gates  to  a.d.  19-37. 


18  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   LEGENDS   OF   BUDDHA. 

Buddha's  birthday  on  Christmas-day — 'The  Messianic  Star—'  He  that  should 
come ' — Karma — Nirvana  is  the  Sun — Salvation  by  Faith — Incarnation 
of  the  Virgin-son  by  '  the  Holy  Ghost  '—Krishna— '  Birth  in  an  inn' 
—Heavenly  host  proclaim  joy  and  peace — Asita,  the  Simeon  of  Bud- 
dhists— Presentation  in  the  Temple  when  twelve,  and  public  teaching1 
when  thirty  years  old — Temptation  by  Satan  in  the  wilderness— Buddha, 
'full  of  grace,'  his  body  surrounded  by  a  'glory,' 'fiery  tongues,' two ' 
men  represented  by  his  side— The  Lamb  (Aries) — Trees  of  life  and  of 
knowledge — Baptism  in  the  holy  stream— Transfiguration,  or  '  baptism  of 
fire '  on  a  mount — No  bloody  sacrifices,  &c. — Parable  of  the  sower  and 
the  tares — The  woman  at  the  well — Promise  of  another  Buddha — 
Miracles  at  Buddha's  death — The  tears  of  a  weeping  woman  had  wetted 
his  feet  before  his  death — How  to  explain  the  parallels  between  Buddhistic 
and  Christian  records — Continuity  of  Divine  influences. 

Buddha's  Birthday  on  Christmas-day. 

According  to  Sanscrit  and  Chinese  scriptures,  to  the 
stone-cut  edicts  of  Asoka  and  the  Sanchi  Tope,  certain 
legends  about  Buddha  circulated  in  India  and  in  China, 
not  only  before  the  close  of  the  Apostolic  age,  but  more 
than  three  centuries  earlier.  Among  these  legends  the 
most  ancient  are  those  which  refer  to  the  incarnation 
of  Buddha  as  Angel-Messiah. 

Prophecies  have  directed  the  attention  of  men  to 
the  Tath&gatha,  literally  to  '  Him  that  should  come,'  to 
'  the  Anointed,'  the  Messiah  or  Kung-teng  of  the  Chinese. 
The  expectation  of  this  Messiah  and  of  the  kingdom 
which  he  should  set  up  is  a  general  one.  He  will  come 
from  heaven,  be  born  in  the  flesh,  attested  by  miracles, 
bring  to  earth  the  highest  wisdom  from  above,  the 
Bodhi   from  beyond  ;  he  aviII  establish    a    kingdom   of 


MESSIANIC   PROPHECIES.  19 

heavenly  truth  and  justice,  live  as  a  man,  then  die  and 
return  to  heaven.  Like  his  mother,  he  will  be  of  royal, 
not  of  priestly  descent,  and  genealogies  will  prove  this. 
The  Messiah  inhabits  the  fourth  or  Tusita-heaven,  a 
1  certain  locality  described  as  a  circle,  and  which  is  dis- 
tinguished from  « the  worlds  above  Tusita,'  thus  also 
from  the  highest  material  heavens.  Apart  from  all 
these,  a  non-material  locality  seems  to  be  implied  where 
the  highest  God  dwells,  to  whom  Buddha  is  said  to 
have  prayed,  as  to  the  self-dependent  and  creating  God, 
Isvara-Deva.  So  long  as  Buddha  is  in  the  Tusita- 
heaven,  he  is  not  yet  at  the  height  of  his  development, 
and  he  looks  forward  to  the  time  after  his  last  birth, 
the  birth  on  earth,  when  the  ways  will  be  open  to  him 
which  lead  to  what  is  called  Nirvana,  or  destruction, 
but  at  the  same  time  to  the  '  final  resting-place  of  the 
spirit,'  the  locality  to  which  men  long  to  come,  where 
'  the  harvest '  takes  place. 

We  leave  the  question  for  the  present  as  an  open 
one,  whether  the  Nirvana  was  held  to  be  or  not  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  god  to  whom  Buddha  prayed,  the 
man  who  as  an  Iranian  could  not  have  been  an  Atheist. 
But  what  is  said  about  the  non-material  nature  of  the 
Nirvana  is  also  said  about  Isvara-Deva,  *  the  universal 
spirit,'  later  called  '  all  the  Buddhas,'  about  the  abso- 
lutely immaterial  spirit,  who  is  so  unlike  Buddha  before 
his  incarnation — absolutely  independent  of  all  influences 
of  matter,  being  the  Maha-Brahma,  to  whose  '  bright 
body'  Buddha  will  resemble,  Buddha  is  yet  exposed  to 
these  material  influences  even  in  the  fourth  heaven, 
which  comparative  '  glory '  he  is  resolved  to  give  up  for 
a  time  in  order  to  attain  his  final  birth,  that  in  the  flesh.1 

In  accordance  with  recorded  Zoroastrian  doctrines, 
Gautama  seems  to  have  believed  and  taught,  that  '  the 
good  and  most  holy  Father  of  all  truth  '  is  the  source  of 
the  supernatural  light,  of  the  spiritual  power,  wisdom, 

1  Romantic  History  of  Buddha,  pp.  24,  77,  113. 
c  2 


20  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

or  Bodhi,  and  thus  of  the  moral  element  in  man. 
Gautama  was  considered  by  his  followers  to  have  been 
a  chosen  instrument  of  that  Divine  power,  as  Angel  and 
as  Man.  The  Divine  Wisdom,  personified  by  the  heavenly 
Buddha,  becomes  man,  according  to  Iranian  tradition, 
and  it  had  a  pre-mundane  personal  existence  according 
to  Zoroastrian  and  to  Buddhistic  records.  It  is  owing 
to  this  Divine  power  which  is  in  the  incarnate  Buddha, 
that  with  uplifted  eyes,  and  turned  to  the  East,  he  can 
pray  to  the  highest  Spirit,  and  be  at  one  with  him.  It 
is  only  as  the  highest  organ  of  the  spiritual  power,  pro- 
ceeding from  the  highest  Spirit,  that  Gautama  could  be 
by  some  conceived  as  the  source  of  the  world.  He  was 
called  its  developer,  and  was  in  this  sense  identified  with 
Isvara-Deva,  the  Creator,  to  whom  he  prayed. 

At  a  certain  time,  which  is  not  clearly  defined, 
Gautama  was  established  '  in  the  condition  of  a  Buddha, 
free  for  ever  from  the  possibility  of  sorrow  and  pain, 
and  was  therefore  named  Djina  (the  vanquisher), 
possessed  of  all  wisdom,  versed  in  the  practice  of  it, 
perfectly  acquainted  with  it,  firmly  grounded  in  the 
ways  of  heaven  and  in  the  ways  of  purity  and  holiness, 
possessed  of  independent  being,  like  all  the  lords  of  the 
world  (all  Buddhas),  ready  to  accommodate  himself  to 
all  possible  circumstances.' !  As  a  spirit  in  the  fourth 
heaven,  he  resolves  to  give  up  '  all  that  glory,  in  order 
to  be  born  in  the  world,'  for  the  purpose  '  to  rescue  all 
men  from  their  misery  and  every  future  consequence  of 
it ' ;  he  vows  '  to  deliver  all  men,  who  are  left  as  it  were 
without  a  saviour.'  He  is  called  '  the  great  Physician,' 
Healer  or  Saviour,  the  Bhagavat  or  '  Blessed  One,'  the 
Saviour  of  the  World,  the  *  God  among  gods.' 2 

The  time  of  this  heavenly  Buddha's  incarnation  is 
marked  by  various  statements.     It  is  asserted  to  have 

1  Horn.  Hist.,  278,  2,  53,  7G,  130,  133. 

2  Thus  .also  Serosh  was  identified  with  Orninzd  and  the  Divine  Word, 
Memra  of  the  Taimimim  witli  Jehovah. 


XEW  YEAR'S  DAY  OX  THE  17th  OF  NOVEMBER.    21 

taken  place  on  the  eighth  day  of  the  second  month  of 
spring :  we  hope  to  prove  conclusively  that  this  is  our 
Christmas-day. 

In  his  treatise  on  the  Yedic  Calendar  Jyotisham, 
Weber  justly  complains  that  all  former  works  on  Indian 
astronomy  are  based  on  such  documents  as  were  com- 
posed after  that  the  last  development  of  astronomy  in 
India  had  been  reached.  The  comparison  of  the  most 
ancient  calendars  known  to  us  has  led  Mr.  E.  G.  Hali- 
burton,  of  Nova  Scotia,  to  prove,  that  a  New  Year's 
festival  connected  with  and  determined  by  the  Pleiades 
was,  by  almost  universal  custom,  and  partly  in  times 
called  pre-historic,  connected  with  a  three  days'  festival 
of  the  dead.  It  corresponded  with  the  Christian  festivals 
of  All  Saints  and  All  Souls,  at  the  beginning  of  Novem- 
ber, and  was  preceded  in  some  countries  by  a  holy 
evening  or  Halloween.1  At  first  it  was  the  appearance 
of  the  Pleiades  at  sunset,  later  their  culmination  at  mid- 
night, which  determined  the  commencement  of  the 
year.  According  to  the  calendar  of  the  Brahmans  of 
Tirvalore  the  year  began  in  November,  and  the  first 
month  was  called  after  the  Pleiades  Cartiguey  or  Krit- 
tikas.  The  latter  name  Weber  has  shown  to  mean  '  the 
associates,'  those  who  are  bound  together,  the  heap, 
whilst  the  Hebrew  word  for  the  Pleiades,  Kimah,  has 
exactly  the  same  meaning.  Also,  the  first  of  the  Naxa- 
tras,  of  the  stellar  houses  or  stations  of  the  moon,  was 
marked  by  the  Pleiades. 

This  Indian  year,  determined  by  the  Pleiades,  began 
with  the  17th  of  November,  approximative^  at  the  time 
of  the  Pleiades  culminating  at  midnight,  and  this  com- 
mencement of  the  year  was  celebrated  by  the  Hindu 
Durga,   a  festival    of  the   dead.     Mr.  Haliburton  has 

1  Haliburton,  New  Materials  for  the  History  of  Man,  partly  quoted  by 
Professor  Piazzi  Smyth,  and  more  fully  examined  and  explained  in  Astro- 
nomical Myths,  pp.  111-137,  by  the  Rev.  T.  F.  Blake.  Comp.  E.  v.  Bunsen, 
J>ie  Plejaden  und  der  Thierkreis,  oder  das  Geheimmss  der  Symbole, 


22  THE  LEGEXDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

shown  that  on  the  17th  of  November,  or  Atliyr — the 
Athyr  of  the  Egyptians  and  Atauria  of  the  Arabs — the 
three  days'  feast  of  the  Isia  took  place,  which  culminated 
in  the  finding  of  Osiris,  the  lord  of  tombs,  evidently 
contemporaneously  with  the  culmination  of  the  Pleiades, 
at  midnight.  It  was  on  that  same  day,  in  the  second 
month  of  the  Jewish  year,  which  corresponds  with  our 
November,  that  Noah  shut  himself  up  in  the  ark, 
according  to  Genesis ;  that  is,  on  the  same  day  when 
the  image  of  Osiris  was  by  the  priests  shut  up  in  a 
sacred  coffer  or  ark.  According  to  Greswell,  this  new 
year's  commemoration  on  the  17th  of  November  ob- 
tained among  the  Indians  in  the  earliest  times  to  which 
Indian  calendars  can  be  traced  back.  It  is  sufficient  for 
our  argument,  that  its  commencement  can  be  proved 
long  before  the  birth  of  Gautama-Buddha. 

If  the  17th  of  November  was  New  Year's-day,  the 
second  month  commenced  on  the  17th  of  December, 
and  '  the  eighth  day,'  Buddha's  birthday,  was  the  25th 
of  December,  the  sun's  annual  birthday,  when  the 
power  of  the  sun  ceases  to  decrease  and  again  begins  to 
increase.1  The  text  in  Buddhistic  writings  we  are  con- 
sidering presupposes  the  commencement  of  the  year  on 
the  17th  of  November,  and  thus  points  to  the  25th  of 
December.  This  is  confirmed  by  another  statement 
in  the  same  scripture.  At  the  time  of  Buddha's  birth, 
'  the  asterism  Chin  was  passing  and  the  asterism  Koh 
was  coining  on.'  Evidently  this  refers  to  the  contempo- 
raneous rising  and  setting  of  certain  stars  on  opposite 
sides   of  the  horizon,     In  the   assumed  but  uncertain 

1  According  to  the  Christian  calendar  the  birthday  of  John  the  Baptist 
is  on  the  day  of  the  summer  solstice,  when  the  sun  begins  to  decrease.  The 
words  attributed  to  him  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  that  he  must  decrease  and 
Jesus  increase,  may  be  referred  to  this  connection  of  the  respective  birth- 
days of  John  and  of  Jesus  with  the  summer  and  the  winter  solstice.  As  there 
are  six  months  between  this  change  in  the  sun's  position,  so,  according  to 
the  Gospel  after  Luke,  the  Baptist  was  exactly  six  months  younger  than 
Jesus.     (Luke  i.  24.)  " 


SOLAR    SYMBOLISM    OF   THE    MESSIAH.  23 

year  of  Buddha's  birth,  625  B.C.,  in  the  latitude  of 
Benares,  on  the  25th  of  December,  and  at  midnight, 
when  according  to  prophecies  the  birth  of  the  Anointed 
One  was  expected,  '  the  point  of  the  ecliptic  rising 
above  the  horizon  was  very  close  to  the  star  X  Virginis, 
whilst  the  stars  a  and  f  of  this  sign  had  already  risen 
some  distance.  At  this  time  the  point  of  the  ecliptic 
setting  was  in  Aries,  nearly  in  the  same  longitude  as 
Hamal,  a  Arietis,  the  nearest  visible  star  being  /x  Ceti.' 
The  whole  of  Shin  (Chin)  had  set  at  that  hour  in  lati- 
tude 25°.  Pisces  had  also  entirely  set;  and  the  lunar 
mansion  immediately  above  the  western  horizon  was  the 
one  numbered  16  in  Williams's  list  (Sen  or  Sin  P).1  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  that  this  asterism  Sen  was  the 
one  meant  in  one  Buddhist  record,  where  it  is  called 
Chin.  On  this  supposition  the  two  asterisms  mentioned 
as  coming  and  going  at  the  time  of  Buddha's  birth 
would  both  be  correctly  referred  to.  But  it  is  enough 
for  our  argument  that  an  asterism  in  Virgo  is  clearly 
stated  as  coming  on  or  rising  on  the  horizon  at  that 
time,  for  the  sign  of  Virgo  was  certainly  rising  on  the 
eastern  horizon  at  midnight  on  the  25th  of  December  in 
the  year  625  B.C.,  as  seen  in  the  latitude  of  Buddha's 
birthplace.  The  position  of  the  sphere  would  not  be 
materially  altered  in  any  of  the  possible  other  dates  of 
Buddha's  birth. 

Thus  it  is  not  proved  that  Gautama-Buddha  was 
really  born  on  the  25th  of  December,  or  rather  at  mid- 
night on  the  24th,  at  the  dawn  (Maya)  of  the  first  day 
of  the  new  solar  year ;  but  it  is  proved,  that  the  birth 
of  the  Angel-Messiah,  whose  symbol  was  the  Sun,  was 
expected  and  asserted  to  have  actually  taken  place  at 
this  time,  that  is,  on  the  eighth  day  of  the  second 
month  of  the  year  which  was  computed  to  begin  on  the 
17th  of  November. 

1  Kindly  communicated  by  Mr.  Proctor.     See  Williams's  Map  of  Chinese 
Asterisms. 


24  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

Buddhistic  records  imply  that  Buddha  was  born  at 
the  time  of  the  sun's  annual  birthday,  of  its  entry  into 
the  sign  of  the  winter  solstice,  when  its  apparent  evolu- 
tion round  the  earth  re-commences.  The  Cosmical  was 
regarded  as  the  symbol  of  the  Ethical,  the  sun  as  the 
symbol  of  divine  light,  of  which  Gautama  the  enlightened 
was  believed  to  be  a  chosen  instrument.  The  solar 
Messianic  symbol  is  thus  proved  to  be  more  ancient 
than  the  time  of  Buddha's  birth.  The  sun  was  the 
symbol  of  Gautama-Buddha  and  of  Jesus  Christ,  who 
is  described  as  '  the  sun  of  righteousness '  and  as  '  the 
day-spring  from  on  high.'  This  common  symbolism 
may  help  to  explain  several  parallels  in  Buddhistic  and 
in  Christian  records.  Here  we  have  only  to  point  out, 
that  as  on  the  transmitted  day  of  Buddha's  birth,  so  on 
Christmas-day  the  constellation  of  the  sphere  rising  on 
the  Eastern  horizon  is  that  of  the  Virgin,  represented 
as  holding  the  new-born  Sun-God  in  her  arms,  and  fol- 
lowed by  the  Serpent,  who  aims  at  her  heel  and  almost 
touches  it  with  its  open  mouth.  The  symbolism  of  the 
sphere  on  Christmas-day  points  to  Isis  with  her  infant 
Horus  ;  to  the  virgin  Maya  with  her  infant  Buddha  ;  and 
to  the  Virgin  Mary  with  her  infant  Jesus,  described  in 
the  Apocalypse  of  John  as  persecuted  by  the  old  ser- 
pent, the  Devil. 

Are  these  and  other  similar  coincidences  a  mere 
chance,  or  have  the  respective  traditions  originated  in  a 
common  source,  and  is  that  source  a  Divine  Eeve- 
lation  ? 

The  Angel  who  is  to  become  Buddha. 

We  have  shown  that  among  a  certain  circle  of  In- 
dians, prophecies  were  accredited  which  announced  the 
incarnation  of  an  Angel,  called  the  Anointed  or  Messiah, 
who  should  bring  to  earth  the  Wisdom  or  Bod  hi  from 
above  and  establish  the  kingdom  of  heavenly  truth  and 
justice.     He  would  be  of  royal  descent,  and  genealogies 


'  HE    THAT    SHOULD    COME.  25 

would  connect  him  with  his  ancestors.  '  The  Blessed 
One,'  the  '  God  among  Gods,'  and  the  '  Saviour  of  the 
World,'  was,  according  to  Buddhistic  records,  incarnate 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  royal  virgin  Maya,  and  he  was 
born  on  Christmas-day,  the  birthday  of  the  sun,  for 
which  reason  the  sun  became  the  symbol  of  Gautama- 
Buddha. 

The    angel,  whose  time   of   incarnation  is  astrono- 
mically fixed,  knows  by  the  position  of  the  stars,  that 
his    time   is   come    to  descend    to    earth,  as  organ   of 
Divine  enlightenment,  of  the  Wisdom  from  above,  of 
the  Tradition  from  beyond  the  Prashna  Paramita.     The 
Bodhisatva,  or  next  candidate  for  the  Buddha  dignity, 
the  Tathagatha,  He  that  should  come,  has  fulfilled  his 
years  in  the  heavenly  dwelling-place  as  Deva  or  Spirit, 
the  Kung-teng,  the  Anointed  or  Messiah,  is  about  to  be 
born  in  the  flesh.     Sadness  prevails  among  his  fellow- 
spirits,  because  of  his  approaching  departure.     One  of 
his  companions  is  consoled  by  the  consideration,  that 
they  can  attain  the  privilege  of  descending  to  the  earth, 
in  order  to  see  the  place  where  Buddha  is  to  be  born. 
Another  expresses  his  wish  that  his  years  in  the  place 
he  inhabits  were  passed,  so  that  he  might  be  born  with 
him   on   earth.     Again  another  spirit  says :   '  Let  not 
your  heart  be  afraid,  he  will  come  again.'     Finally,  one 
of  Buddha's  associates  addresses  the  departing  one  in 
these  words  :  'Maha  Parusha,'  great  soul,  or  great  Lord, 
'  do  not  forget  us.'    In  his  parting  address  the  heavenly 
Buddha  says,  that  birth  and  death  are  the  cause  of  all 
parting,  that  his  fellow-spirits  need  not  be  sad  about 
him.     For  in  course  of  time  he  had  become  possessed 
of  a  certain  condition  or  Karma,  in  consequence  of  his 
having  '  always  prepared  his  heart  for  the  possession  of 
the  highest  wisdom,  by  constant  vows  and  prayers,'  and 
that  this  Karma  guards  him  from  a  long  sojourn  in  the 
world. 

On  the  real  meaning  of  '  Karma,'  different  opinions 


26  THE    LEGENDS   OF   BUDDHA. 

among  the  interpreters  of  Buddhism  prevail.  It  has 
been  defined  as  '  a  connecting  link,  a  bridge  between 
one  life  and  another,'  and  yet  not  as  the  soul,  which 
Buddhism  is  held  not  to  acknowledge.  Karma  is  ex- 
plained to  be  the  doctrine,  that  as  soon  as  a  sentient 
being  dies,  whether  angel,  man,  or  animal,  a  new  being 
is  produced  in  a  more  or  less  painful  and  material  state 
of  existence,  according  to  the  Karma,  desert  or  merit, 
of  the  being  who  had  died.  Karma  is  a  moral  cause, 
and  never  dies.  From  one  point  of  view  Karma  '  has 
much  analogy  with  soul ;  and  from  another  it  is  a  name 
given  to  the  moral  power  working  in  the  universe.1 
We  submit  that  this  moral  power  must  be  identified 
witli  '  the  spiritual  power '  or  Maya,  which  is  also  called 
6  Holy  Spirit.'  It  is  this  power  in  heaven  and  earth 
which  is  said  to  have  guarded  Buddha  from  a  long 
sojourn  in  the  world,  and  which  enabled  him  to  fix  his 
heart  on  what  is  not  material,  and  finally  to  enter 
Nirvana.  Whether  Karma  be  regarded  as  conscience, 
or  as  instinct,  in  either  case  it  might  be  connected,  more 
or  less  directly,  with  the  '  Holy  Spirit '  or '  Word,'  through 
which,  according  to  Iranian  tradition,  the  highest  God 
communicates  his  mysteries  to  reasonable  beings  in 
heaven  and  earth. 

4  This,  his  body,'  which  Buddha  has  '  not  yet  been 
able  to  cast  off,'  though  in  heaven,  would  be  born  in 
the  world,  but  soon  he  would  receive  perfect  liberation 
from  all  matter  in  the  Nirvana.  '  I  now  am  about  to 
assume  a  body  (Shan-yeou),  not  for  the  pleasure  of 
gaining  wealth  or  enjoying  the  pleasures  of  sense,  but 
I  am  about  to  descend  and  be  born  among  men  (to  take 
"  tli is  one  birth  ")  simply  to  give  peace  and  rest  to  all 
flesh,  and  to  remove  all  sorrow  and  grief  from  the 
world.'  The  body  which  Buddha,  possessed  in  heaven 
before  his  incarnation  he  was  then  about  '  to  quit  for 

1  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism,  101-103,  150. 


TIIE    SPIRITUAL   BODY.  27 

ever.'  But  later  recorded  tradition  implies,  that  after 
the  incarnation  Buddha  would  assume  another  body, 
the  '  spotless  and  pure,'  Dharmakaya,  which,  in  '  the 
final  resting-place  of  the  spirit,'  in  the  Nirvana  he 
would  possess  under  different  circumstances,  and  '  long 
after '  the  human  body  has  passed  away.  In  one  of 
the  ancient  Gathas  or  hymns,  '  the  deliverance '  (in 
Nirvana)  is  connected  with  the  obtaining  of  '  a  body 
free  from  contamination,'  that  is,  free  from  all  material 
influences,  a  spiritual  body.1 

Nirvana  is  the  Sun. 

Buddha  is  described  as  leaving  the  fourth  heaven, 
Tiisita,  but  from  this  locality,  as  from  all  material 
heavens  or  Eupa,  the  highest  of  which  is  called 
Akanishta,  is  distinguished  the  Nirvana.  We  submit 
that  the  mysterious  Nirvana  or  '  annihilation,'  refers  to 
the  place  where  '  all  matter '  is  supposed  to  be  anni- 
hilated, that  is,  to  the  Sun. 

According  to  Buddhist  conception,  within  the  circle 
of  the  soul's  migrations  from  one  material  body  to 
another,  one  and  the  same  law  rules,  that  is,  the  deeds 
of  the  past  life  of  the  soul  in  a  material  prison  act 
upon  another  existence  of  the  soul  in  the  veil  of 
matter.  From  this  never-varying  law  of  rewards  and 
punishments,  no  escape  for  reasonable  beings  is  possible ; 
except  by  continually  fixing  the  mind  and  the  heart  on 
the  final  destruction  of  all  material  influences.  These 
prevent  the  liberation  of  the  soul  from  successive  births 
and  deaths,  and  hinder  the  entrance  of  the  soul  into 
Nirvana.  The  soul  is  the  breath  or  spirit  from  the 
spiritual  world,  which  is  separated  from  the  material 
world  by  a  great  gulf.  The  light  from  the  spiritual 
world,  from  its  centre,  shines  in  a  dark  place,  as  the 

1  Rom.  History,  26,  33,  34,  130,  and  Beal's  Buddhist  Pilgrims,  400  a.d. 
and  518  a.d. 


28  THE    LEGENDS   OF   BUDDHA. 

glory  or  Shechina,  symbolised  by  the  sun,  shone  in  the 
darkness  of  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy. 

The  Buddhists  seem  originally  to  have  conceived  the 
locality  of  Nirvana  in  a  manner  similar  to  the  Christian's 
conception  of  God's  abode,  as  a  place  where,  as  in  the 
sun,  there  is  '  neither  variableness  nor  shadow  of  turn- 
ing.' The  Nirvana  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  a 
locality  which,  like  the  sun,  does  not  appear  to  revolve 
around  other  bodies.  The  Buddhists  may  be  assumed 
to  have  regarded  Nirvana  as  the  non-material  centre 
of  the  universe,  and  source  of  light.  Since  the  orbit  of 
bodies  in  space  forms  the  basis  of  the  doctrine  of  trans- 
migrations of  souls,  the  sun,  as  the  supposed  immaterial 
centre  of  these  bodies  which  appear  to  rotate  round  this 
luminary,  could  be  regarded  as  the  appropriate  symbol 
of  the  Nirvana,  '  the  last  resting-place  of  the  spirit,' 
which  has  then  been  freed  from  the  ever-returning  cycles 
of  birth  and  death,  and  returns  to  its  home. 

Thus  the  idea  would  suggest  itself  to  regard  the  sun 
as  the  purely  spiritual  and  immaterial  dwelling-place  of 
the  self-dependent,  world-creating  spirit,  Isvara-Deva,  to 
whom  Buddha  prayed  with  uplifted  eyes.  His  system  of 
morality,  which  he  could  not  connect  with  the  gods  of  the 
Brahmans,  must  have  acknowledged  a  non-terrestrial, 
spiritual  source  of  moral  Providence,  unknown  to  Brah- 
manism,  at  least  as  publically  proclaimed.  Gautama 
is  recorded  to  have  regarded  the  origin  of  the  soul, 
which  Brah  1  nanism  vaguely  connected  with  Brahma,  as 
beyond  human  comprehension.  But  he  cannot  have 
separated  the  soul  from  the  highest  spirit,  to  whom  he 
prayed.  The  spiritual  body  of  the  Arhats,of  the  righteous, 
or  saints,  is  to  be  like  the  shining  body  of  Brahma  ;  they 
shall  shine  like  the  sun  when  they  have  entered 
Nirvana. 

In  the  most  ancient  Buddhistic  writings  two  essen- 
tially different  explanations  of  the  Nirvana  are  given. 
On  the  one  side  it  is  described  as  the  end  of  all  existence, 


THE    RIGHTEOUS    SHIXE    AS   THE    SUX.  29 

even  as  the  extinguishing  of  a  flame,  as  a  cessation  of 
thought.  But  in  other  passages  it  is  described  as  the 
place  of  peace,  of  an  existence  without  births  and 
deaths,  as  '  a  place  of  repose,'  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  con- 
querors in  the  material  world — -that  is,  as  we  may 
assume,  by  the  souls  who  have  conquered  over  matter, 
and  who  are  to  enjoy  a  non-material,  a  spiritual 
body.  The  Nirvana  can  only  be  reached  by  inward 
growth,  by  '  the  path  of  wisdom ' ;  to  which  way  of 
everlasting  life  is  opposed  the  way  which  leads  to  '  the 
power  and  dominion '  which  the  evil  spirit,  the  god  of 
the  material  world,  exercises,  and  which  is  to  be 
destroyed.  From  this  it  may  be  concluded,  that 
Nirvana  was  connected  with  the  kingdom  of  the  good 
and  bright  spirit,  with  the  abode  of  the  self-dependent 
god,  Isvara-Deva. 

Nirvana  is  the  highest  aim,  the  highest  reward  of 
the  wandering  soul,  the  place  from  whence  it  came  and 
whither  it  returns,  the  place  of  the  heavenly  harvest, 
according  to  a  simile  of  Gautama,  to  which  we  shall 
presently  refer.  In  some  of  the  most  ancient  Buddhist 
records,  in  the  Jatakas  or  stories,  in  the  Gathas  or 
songs  which  Sakya  is  said  to  have  recited,  and  which 
show  some  relations  to  the  Gathas  of  Zoroaster  in  the 
Zendavesta,  the  Nirvana  is  described,  though  not  exclu- 
sively of  other  views b  as  the  final  resting-place  of 
spiritual  beings.  Buddha  is  recorded  to  have  said  that 
he  saw  individuals  in  Nirvana,  and  many  holy  men  are 
mentioned  by  name  '  who  entered  into  the  brightness  of 
the  sun,  and  attained  the  straight  path.'  Their  desire 
is  fulfilled,  and  they  '  abide  for  ever  in  the  true  eternal 
law ' ;  they  dwell  in  '  the  only  truly  great  one  of  the 
three  worlds.'  The  '  condition  of  Nirvana,'  to  be  desired 
above  all  things,  is  contrasted  to  '  all  earthly  things,' 
which  are  '  perishable.'  The  narrow  path  leads  to  '  the 
shore  of  Nirvana,'  to  'the  ever  constant  condition,'  to 
*  the  nectar  of  true  religion,'  to  immortality.     Nirvana 


30  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

is  identified  with  '  the  opening  of  the  pure  ways  of 
heaven,'  of  the  '  gates  of  eternal  life/  and  is  actually 
called  the  sun,  and  '  the  centre  of  the  supernatural 
light.' l  Thus  the  immortality  of  the  soul  in  Nirvana  is 
clearly  acknowledged.  Nirvana  is  the  place  of  the  in- 
gathering, the  heavenly  garner  for  the  ripened  fruit 
sown  in  the  material  world  :  it  is  the  sun  as  the  region 
of  eternal  life. 

The  explanation  of  Nirvana  as  the  sun  is  confirmed 
by  the  presumable  identity  of  the  sun-god  Abidlia  with 
the  highest  spirit,  Isvara-Deva,  who  thrones  in  Nirvana, 
and  also  by  the  direct  connection  of  Buddha  with  Nirvana 
as  well  as  with  the  sun.  The  sun  is  the  symbol  of  Buddha, 
who  is  represented  as  a  ram  or  lamb — that  is,  as  the 
stellar  symbol  of  the  spring-equinox  in  his  time,  as  the 
Sun  in  Aries.  This  interpretation  is  all  the  more  ad- 
missible, as  we  have  proved  that,  according  to  Buddhistic 
records,  Gautama-Buddha's  birth  was  expected,  and  had 
taken  place,  on  the  sun's  annual  birthday.  Again,  the 
connection  of  the  locality  of  Nirvana,  with  the  sun  is 
confirmed  by  what  seems  to  have  been  the  aboriginal 
meaning  of  the  '  four  paths  '  which  lead  to  Nirvana,  and 
which  we  may  now  connect  with  the  '  four  kings  '  and 
the  four  cardinal  points  of  the  Zodiac,  with  '  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world,'  towards  each  of  which  the  new- 
born Gautama-Buddha  is  said  to  have  advanced  seven 
steps.  Buddhists  describe  Abidha  as  the  god  of  light 
(of  the  sun),  as  surrounded  by  four  mysterious  beings, 
which  form  a  striking  analogy  to  the  four  cherubim 
and  four  beasts  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures. 

The  enemy  of  the  sun-god  Abidlia  is  the  ■  king  of 
death  '  and  the  dwelling-place  of  Abidha,  the  king  of 
life,  is  Nirvana,  from  which  it  follows  that  the  sun 
was  by  Buddhists  identified  witli  Nirvana.  In  this 
locality  there  is  neither  darkness  nor  death  :    '  To  be 

1  Romantic  History,  9,  121,  130,  251.  253,  199,  200>  208,  212,  215,  217; 
comp.  175,  219,  225. 


THE    CENTRE    OF    SUPERNATURAL    LIGHT.  31 

and  not  to  be,  how  can  this  be  united  in  One,  how  can 
this  be  Nirvana  ?  These  two  conditions  have  nothing  in 
common  ;  can  darkness  and  light  be  united  ? '  As  in 
the  sun,  so  in  Nirvana  there  is  no  darkness,  no  death. 
As  the  snn  was  regarded  to  be  the  source  of  the  vital 
and  enlightening  spiritual  power  and  of  the  highest 
wisdom,  as  throne  of  the  god  of  light,  so  it  is  the  long- 
ing of  all  sons  of  the  Wisdom  from  above,  of  the  Bodhi 
or  spiritual  power,  of  the  Maya  or  Brahm,  whose  chief 
organ  Gautama  was,  to  reach  4  the  way  and  the  place ' 
into  which  '  all  Bnddhas '  have  entered.1 

At  the  same  time  the  word  '  Nirvana '  is  used  to 
describe  a  spiritual  condition,  a  '  condition  of  moral 
rest,'  of  which  Gautama  had  received  a  foretaste  whilst 
on  earth,  since  he  possessed  the  Prashna  Paramita,  the 
Wisdom  or  Bodhi,  the  Tradition  '  from  beyond.'  For 
this  reason  he  was  '  in  possession  of  complete  spiritual 
life,'  being  *  perfected,'  and  having,  in  a  spiritual  sense, 
'  reached  Nirvana.'  His  flesh  was,  therefore,  not  at 
enmity  with  the  spirit  within  the  same ;  and  because 
the  opposing  principle  in  himself  had  been  overcome 
by  the  required  free  determination  of  his  will,  therefore 
his  liberation  from  the  circle  of  birth  and  death  took 
place,  and  s  through  eternity '  he  was  to  receive  no 
more  '  migratory  existence,'  but  the  enduring  existence, 
eternal  life  in  Nirvana.  It  follows  from  these  and 
similar  passages  that  even  the  personal  existence  in 
the  flesh  did  not  prevent  Gautama  entering,  during  his 
sojourn  on  earth,  into  that  spiritual  condition  which  in 
the  highest  and  abiding  sense  was  connected  with 
Nirvana  as  the  '  centre  of  supernatural  light '  and  the 
*  brightness  of  the  sun.'  If  therefore  in  isolated  pas- 
sages Gautama  is  recorded  to  have  said  that  after  the 

1  Conip.  Beal,  Congress  of  Orientalists,  1874,  p.  155;  Horn.  Hist.  251. 
Abidlia  seems  to  be  only  another  name  for  Amitlmba,  the  god  of  boundless 
light,  said  by  Northern  Buddhists  to  inhabit  the  Paradise  of  the  West,  and 
for  Adi-Buddha  of  the  Nepaulese  (Eitel,  Buddhism,  second  edition,  08  f., 
HGf. 


32  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

birth  of  Bodhi  in  him  he  at  once  obtained  deliverance, 
and  that  hereafter  there  would  be  '  no  more  individual 
existence,'  no  more  '  bhava,'  this  expression,  the  exact 
meaning  of  which  is  doubtful,  can  only  be  referred  to 
his  body  in  the  flesh,  as  the  last  of  material  bodies. 
From  the  '  bhava '  must  be  distinguished  the  spotless 
and  pure  '  dharmakaya/  the  spiritual  body,  in  '  the  final 
resting-place  of  the  spirit,'  in  Nirvana.  This  celestial 
body  the  Buddhist  expects  to  possess  under  different 
circumstances,  long  after  '  the  human  body '  has  passed 
away,  after  the  end  of  the  soul's  transmigrations,  which 
only  in  the  exceptional  cases  of  incarnate  angels  like 
Buddha  were  regarded  as  having  come  to  an  end  with 
the  life  on  earth.  The  body  in  the  flesh  was  regarded 
by  Gautama,  according  to  the  texts,  as  one  of  five' 
finite  existences,  the  five  Skhandha,  of  which  he  is 
recorded  to  have  said  ;  '  It  is  impossible  to  say  that 
either  of  these  is  "  I,"  that  is  atta  or  atma,  the  "  self," 
which  being  in  its  germ  of  heavenly  origin,  cannot  be 
identified  with  any  one  of  the  soul's  material  embodi- 
ments. The  soul  of  man  is  intended  finally  to  be 
in  a  body  like  that  of  Gautama,  which  is  described 
as  resembling  "  the  bright  body  "  of  Brahma,  "  a  body 
free  from  contamination,"  and  which  alone  can  "  cross 
over  to  the  shore  "  of  Nirvana,  which  body  alone  can 
reach  the  "heavenly  land  of  the  Arhats,"  and  the 
"  lake  of  Ambrosia  which  washes  away  all  sin/' ' 1 

To  be  like  Gautama  is  to  reach  the  ideal  which  has 
been  set  to  humanity,  and  to  be  like  God.  Salvation  does 
not  depend  on  any  outward  act ;  but  on  a  change  or  re- 
newal of  the  mind,  on  a  reform  of  the  inner  nature,  on 
faith  in  the  innate  guiding  power  of  God,  of  which  the 
celestial  Buddha  incarnated  in  Gautama  was  held  to  be 
the  highest  organ.  The  saving  faith,  therefore,  was 
brought  by  and  centred  in  the  incarnate  Angel-Messiah, 
the  Saviour  of  the  world.     Thus  also  the  Hindus  held, 

1  Romantic  History,  253-25G,  284,  108,  77;  Rhys  Davids,  I.e.,  148. 


SYMBOL   OF   THE   ELEPHANT.  33 

certainly  those  of  later  times,  that  their  ancient  belief 
in  the  doctrine  of '  salvation  by  faith  '  or  'bhakti'  centred 
in  the  God-man,  Krishna,  one  of  the  incarnations  of 
the  Deity.  Salvation  is  by  faith,  and  faith  comes  by  the 
Maya,  the  Spirit  or  Word  of  God,  of  which  Buddha,  the 
Angel-Messiah,  was  regarded  as  the  divinely  chosen  and 
incarnate  messenger,  the  vicar  of  God,  and  God  himself 
on  earth.1 

Conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Maya. 

The  incarnation  of  the  Angel  destined  to  become 
Buddha  took  place  in  a  spiritual  manner.  The  ele- 
phant is  the  symbol,  as  of  the  sun,  so  of  power 
and  wisdom;  and  Buddha,  symbolised  by  the  sun, 
was  considered  the  organ  of  divine  'power  and 
wisdom,'  as  he  is  called  in  the  'Tikas.'  For  these 
reasons  Buddha  is  described  by  Buddhistic  legends  as 
having  descended  from  heaven  in  the  form  of  an 
elephant  to  the  place  where  the  virgin  Maya  was.  But 
according  to  Chinese-Buddhistic  writings,  it  was  the 
'  Holy  Ghost,'  or  '  Shing-Shin,'  which  descended  on  the 
virgin  Maya.  The  effect  produced  by  this  miracle  is 
thus  summed  up  in  the  most  ancient  Chinese  life  of 
Buddha  which  we  at  present  possess;  translated  be- 
tween a.d.  25  and  190:  'If  the  child  born  from  this 
conception  be  induced  to  lead  a  secular  life,  he  shall 
become  a  universal  monarch ;  but  if  he  leave  his  home 
and  become  a  religious  person,  then  he  shall  become 
Buddha,  and  shall  save  the  world.'2 

Gautama  had  himself  chosen  Maya  for  his  mother 
among  the  daughters  of  men,  when  in  the  fourth 
heaven    lie    had    seen,   guided    by  astronomical    signs, 

1  Monier  Williams,  Hinduism,  115, 136,  216-209.  The  Maya,  or  Holy 
Ghost  of  the  Buddhists  may  be  safely  identified  as  with  the  Brahm,  so  with 
the  original  eternal  element  or  Prakriti,  from  which  the  world  proceeded 
according  to  the  system  of  Sankhya,  well  known  to  Gautama. 

2  Communicated  by  Prof.  Beal ;  comp.  Beal,  THpitaka,  160. 

D 


34  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

by  a  Messianic  star,  that  the  time  for  his  incarnation 
had  come.  Having  seen  the  Messianic  constellation,  the 
Angel-Messiah  at  once  chose  his  parents  in  the  flesh. 
His  choice  fell  on  the  King  of  Kapilavastu  and  his 
virgin-bride  Maya  or  Mayadevi.  She  was  so  called 
after  Maya,  the  spiritual,  creative  and  enlightening 
power  of  Indian  tradition,  after  the  Bodhi  or  Wisdom 
from  above,  the  power,  word,  or  spirit,  the  Brahm  of 
the  highest  God.  This  power  of  the  Highest,  'the 
Holy  Ghost,'  was  to  surround  her,  and  thus  '  the  holy 
mother'  was  to  give  birth  to  '  the  holy  son.' 

The  virgin  Queen  of  Kapilavastu,  in  the  tenth 
month  after  her  heavenly  conception,  was  on  a  journey 
to  her  father,  called  Supra-Buddha-Grihapati,  living  in 
the  city  of  Devadaho,  and  she  had  reached  the  Lumbini 
Garden,  but  according  to  other  accounts  she  was  only 
halfway  in  a  forest,  where  she  had  alighted  in  an  inn, 
when  Buddha  was  born.  The  birth  took  place  under 
'  two  golden  trees  —  under  the  Bodhi-tree,  Palasa,  the 
acacia,  originally  the  fig-tree,  symbol  of  knowledge, 
and  under  the  A^oka-tree,  the  tree  of  life.  Among  the 
thirty-two  sighs  which  were  to  be  fulfilled  by  the 
mother  of  the  expected  Messiah,  the  fifth  sign  was 
recorded  to  be,  that  she  would  be  on  a  journey  at  the 
time  of  her  childbirth.1  Resting  under  the  Palasa-tree, 
Maya  was  thus  addressed  by  'the  heavenly  women' 
who  surrounded  her  :  *  The  Queen  now  brings  forth  the 
child,  able  to  divide  the  wheel  of  life   and   death;2  in 

1  The  thirty-two  signs  refer  to  thirty-two  deities,  headed  by  Indra,  who 
is  the  thirty-third,  that  is  eight  Vasaa,  eleven  Rudras,  twelve  Adityas,  and 
two  Aswins.  There  were  also  eighty  signs  of  secondary  importance.  The 
number  thirty-two  represents  the  half  of  the  number  sixty-four,  which, 
together  with  the  holy  number  eight,  constituted  the  holy  numbers  of 
Chinese  tradition  before  the  time  of  Confucius  and  Buddha.  These  num- 
bers added  together  represented  the  ancient  astronomical  cycle  of  seventy- 
two,  based  on  the  observation,  which  was  not  quite  correct  till  much  later, 
that  in  seventy-two  solar  years  the  precession  amounts  to  one  day.  (Oomp. 
E.  v.  Bunsen,  Die  Plejaden  mid  der  Thierkreis.) 

2  That  is  able  by  a  miracle  to  interrupt  the  continuous  cycle  of  births 
and  deaths,  to  enter  Nirvana,  the  sun,  which  seems  to  pass  by  the  twelve 
zodiacal  Nidanas. 


SONG    OF   THE    HEAVENLY    HOST.  35 

heaven  and  earth  no  teacher  can  equal  him;  able  to 
deliver  both  Devas  and  men  from  every  kind  of  sorrow : 
let  not  the  Queen  be  distressed,  we  are  here  to  support 
her.'  Thereupon  Bodhisatwa,  perceiving  his  mother 
Maya  standing  on  the  ground,  with  a  branch  of  the 
tree  in  her  hand,  'with  conscious  mind,  arose  from  his 
seat  and  was  born.'  The  attending  spirits  exclaimed  : 
'All  joy  be  to  you,  Queen  Maya,  rejoice  and  be  glad, 
for  this  child  you  have  borne  is  holy.'  He  forthwith 
'walked  seven  steps  towards  each  quarter  of  the 
horizon,  and,  looking  first  to  the  East,  he  pronounced 
the  words  of  the  Gath&:  'In  all  the  world  I  am  the 
very  chief,  from  this  day  forth  my  births  are  finished.' 

The  '  Saviour  of  the  world,'  or  '  the  Blessed  One  of 
the  world,'  the  Bhagavat,  the  '  only  begotten  '  Bodhi- 
satwa, is  born  in  the  presence  of  the  highest  God,  of 
Indra,  the  King  of  kings,  and  of  Brahma.  This  event 
is  attested  by  miracles.  Whilst  '  the  sun  and  moon  are 
darkened  and  deprived  of  their  light,'  there  is  'a  divine 
light  diffused  round  his  person,'  so  that  the  Queen's  son 
was  '  heralded  into  the  world  by  a  supernatural  light.' 
Then  '  the  Eishis  and  Devas  who  dwelt  on  earth 
exclaimed  with  great  joy :  This  day  Buddha  is  born 
for  the  good  of  men,  to  dispel  the  darkness  of  their 
ignorance.  Then  the  four  heavenly  kings  took  up  the 
strain  and  said  :  Now  because  Bodhisatwa  is  born,  to 
give  joy  and  bring  peace  to  the  world,  therefore  is 
there  this  brightness.  Then  the  gods  of  the  thirty- 
three  heavens  took  up  the  burthen  of  the  strain,  and 
the  Yama  Devas  and  the  Tusita  Devas,  and  so  forth, 
through  all  the  heavens  of  the  Kama,  Eupa,  and  Arupa 
worlds,  even  up  to  the  Akanishta  heavens,  all  the 
Devas  joined  in  this  song  and  said  :  To-day  Bodhisatwa 
is  born  on  earth,  to  give  joy  and  peace  to  men  and 
Devas,  to  shed  light  in  the  dark  places,  and  to  give 
sight  to  the  blind.' l 

1  Romantic  History,  43-56. 

d  2 


36  THE  LEGEXDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

A  holy  One,  a  Bishi,  called  Asita  or  Kala,  the  '  Black 
One,'  dwelling  at  peace  above  the  thirty-three  heavens,' 
seeing  celestial  signs,  and  hearing  the  celestial  song, 
descended  to  the  grove,  '  where  he  usually  dwelt  on 
earth.'  But,  according  to  other  accounts,  he  was  a 
Tapaso  or  ascetic,  from  the  Himalaya,  called  Kala- 
devalo,  which  name  corresponds  with  that  of  Asita. 
He  gets  to  Kapilavastu,  where  Maya  tries  to  make  the 
child  bow  its  head  in  reverence  towards  the  feet  of  Asita. 
But  the  child,  '  by  his  spiritual  power,  turned  himself 
round  in  his  mother's  arms,  and  presented  his  feet 
towards  the  Bishi,  who  begged  to  worship  his  feet.' 
Then  Asita,  unbearing  his  right  shoulder  and  bending 
his  right  knee  to  the  ground,  took  the  child  in  his 
arms,  and,  returning  to  his  seat,  rested  on  his  knees. 
He  declared,  that  '  with  the  deepest  reverence  of  body 
and  mind,'  he  took  refuge  in  and  submitted  to  the 
child.  '  Doubtless  this  child  by  his  Divine  wisdom,  is 
completely  acquainted  with  all  events,  past  and  future, 
and  will  therefore  be  able  to  preach  the  law,'  after 
having  become  'completely  inspired,'  that  is,  after 
thirty-five  years.  Asita,  being  of  an  advanced  age, 
deplores  that  he  is  too  old  to  hear  himself  the  Messianic 
proclamation  of  the  pure  law.  He  returns,  rejoicing,  to 
his  mountain-home,  for  his  eyes  have  seen  the  promised 
and  expected  '  Saviour.' i 

Maya's  death  took  place  on  the  seventh  day  after 
the  child's  birth,  when  she  was  '  translated  at  once  '  to 
heaven,  whence  she  occasionally  descends  to  comfort 
men.  The  holy  son  is  placed  under  the  care  of  a 
chosen  stepmother,  Maha-Prajapati,  the  virgin's  son 
having  neither  brothers  nor  sisters.    '  The  royal  prince's 

1  Romanic  History,  54-62.  The  paintings  in  the  Cave  of  Ajunta  repre- 
sent Asita  with  the  child  in  his  arms.  It  is  curious,  that  whilst  this  Simeon 
of  the  Buddhists  is  called  the  Black,  a  Simon-Niger  is  mentioned  in  the 
Acts  among  the  prophets  of  the  Antiochian  Church,  which  we  shall  connect 
with  Essenes,  as  these  with  Buddhists. 


TRANSLATION   OF   MAYA,  37 

foster-mother  sedulously  attended  him  without  inter- 
mission, as  the  sun  attends  on  the  moon  during  the  first 
portion  of  each  month,  till  the  moon  arrives  at  its 
fulness.  So  the  child  gradually  waxed  and  increased 
in  strength ;  as  the  shoot  of  the  Nyagrodha-tree  gradually 
increases  in  size,  well  planted  in  the  earth,  till  itself 
becomes  a  great  tree,  thus  did  the  child  day  by  day 
increase,  and  lacked  nothing.'  This  tradition  seems  to 
be  very  old,  as  Buddha  is  compared  to  the  growing 
moon,1  not  to  the  sun  growing  in  strength,  the  birthday 
of  which  is  described,  perhaps  by  relatively  later 
tradition,  as  the  birthday  of  Buddha.  When  the  sun 
had  become  Buddha's  symbol,  and  when  the  tradition 
about  his  life  on  earth  referred  to  him  as  'the  glory  of 
the  newly  risen  sun,'  the  mother's  symbol  must  have 
been  changed  from  the  moon  to  the  sun.2 


Presentation  in  the  Temple  and  Temptation  in  the 
Wilderness. 

Up  to  his  eighth  year  the  prince  lives  in  the  royal 
palace,  without  receiving  any  tuition,  but  from  the 
eighth  to  the  twelfth  year  masters  are  given  him.  When 
twelve  years  old,  the  child  is  presented  in  the  temple, 
on  which  occasion  forthwith  all  statues  rise  and  throw 
themselves  at  his  feet,  even  the  statues  of  Indra  and 
Brahma.3  '  He  explains  and  asks  learned  questions  ; 
he  excels  all  those  who  enter  into  competition  with 
him.'  Yet  he  waits  till  he  has  reached  his  thirtieth 
year  before  teaching  in  public  surrounded  by  disciples. 

1  According  to  one  of  the  sacred  histories,  or  Itihasas,  in  the  Mahabharata, 
a  certain  Buddha  is  called  Son  of  the  Moon,  and  his  son  was  Paruravas,  who 
introduced  the  three  fires  of  sacrifice,  according  to  the  Rig-Veda,  (Duncker, 
ii.  35).  The  holy  seventh  days  of  the  Buddhists,  the  Uposatha,  refer  to 
the  moon,  and  are  the  four  days  in  the  lunar  month  when  the  moon  is  full, 
or  new,  or  halfway  between  the  two.     (Rhys  Davids,  I.e.  140.) 

2  Comp.  the  connection  of  the  moon  with  the  child's  mother  in  the  Apoca-. 
lypse  of  John, 

3  This  latter  feature  is  not  recorded  in  the  Lalita-  Vistara, 


38  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

'  Seeing  all  flesh  weighed  down  by  sorrow,  oppressed 
by  the  weight  of  false  teaching   and   heretical  beliefs, 
he  thought,  how  difficult  to  release  them  by  declaring 
this  inscrutable  law  of  mine !  thinking  thus,  he  desired 
to  remain  as  a  solitary  hermit  (aranya).'     According  to 
another  account,  he  left  the  palace  when  twenty-eight 
years  old,  spent  seven  years  in  the  wilderness,  and  not 
till  his  thirty-fifth  year,  having  then  learnt  perfect  wis- 
dom, as  Asita  predicted,  did  he  become  a  public  teacher. 
'  The  child  of  heavenly  birth  is  thoroughly  acquainted 
with    the  human   heart,'    he    has    '  arrived    at  perfect 
righteousness,'  and  can  now  fulfil  his   '  destiny,'  which 
is  '  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  the  highest  truth  upon 
earth,'  that  is,  '  the  kingdom  of  righteousness.'    Buddha 
has  come  -  to  deliver  man  from  doubt  and  fear,'  and  he 
is  recorded  to  have  said  :    '  My  heart   enlightened,  I 
desire  to  enlighten  others.' l 

It  was  at  Eajagraha,  near  Patna,   and   at  Savastu 
that    Gautama   began  publicly  to  teach.     During  the 
rainy    season   he  withdrew  with    his    disciples   to  the 
Gardens  of  Kalanda  and  of  Jeta,  and  he  seems  generally 
to  have  avoided  the  cities,     The  number  of  his  disciples 
had  soon  risen  to  sixty,  and  he  sent  them  in  different 
directions  to  preach.      Before  Gautama  can  fulfil  his 
desire  '  to  open  the  gates  of  everlasting  life,'  to  prepare 
men  for   immortality,  he  must  destroy  death  by  con- 
quering over  the  God  of  death,     Gautama  is  now  able 
to  withstand,  in   the  wilderness   among  beasts  of  prey, 
the  attack  and  'temptation'  of  Mara,  'the  god  of  death.' 
He  is  also  called  'king  of  the  world  of  sin,'  the  ruler 
in  'hell.'    Gautama's  antagonist  or  Satan,  Mara,  'trans- 
formed '  himself  (appeared  in  the   air),  and  promised 
Buddha  the  rule  of  the  world  (in  seven  days),  but  '  the 
Holy  One '  said  to  the  devil :  '  Thou,  although  supreme 
in  the  world  of  desire,  hast  no  authority  or  power  in 
the  spiritual  world  ;  thou  art  acquainted  only  with  the 

1  Romantic  History,  63,  04,  0,7,  71,  72,  242,  142, 154,  212,  215. 


MARA   THE    SERPENT-  39 

wretched  beings  in  hell :  but  I  belong  not   to  either  of 
the  three  material  worlds.     It  is  I  who  hereafter  will 
destroy  thine  abode,  oil  Mara,  and  wrest  from  you  your 
power  and  your  dominion.  .   .   .  Not  long  hence  I  shall 
attain  the  highest  wisdom,  I  shall  soon  become  Buddha, 
.   .  .  my  helpers  are    the  Devas   of  the  pure   abodes, 
my  sword  is  Wisdom  ...  I  scorn  the  lie.'     Having 
'defeated  and  overpowered  all  the  evil  influences  and 
devices  of  Mara  and  his  companions,'  eight  guardian- 
angels    '  encouraged  and  comforted '   the  Blessed  One 
in  various  ways.     Hereupon  supernatural  effects  were 
witnessed  in  heaven   and   earth.      '  There  was    no   ill 
feeling  or  hatred  in  the  hearts  of  men,  but  whatever 
want  there  was,  whether   of  food  or   drink  or  raiment, 
was  at  once  supplied  ;  the  blind  received  their  sight, 
the  deaf  heard,  and  the  dumb  spake ;  those  who  were 
bound  in  hell  were  released,  and  every  kind  of  being — 
beasts,   demons,  and  all  created  things — found  peace 
and  rest.'  * 

This  wicked  Mara  who  opposes  Gautama  is  by 
Buddhist  legends  distinguished  from  the  good  serpent 
Naga,  probably  the  fire-spirit,  symbolised  by  the 
serpent-formed  lightning,  a  spirit  who  does  Buddha  no 
harm,  and  who  is  present  at  his  baptism.  But  we  may 
safely  assume  that  the  Initiated  did  connect  Mara,  the 
devil,  with  the  symbol  of  an  evil  serpent,  with  an  evil 
Naga.  For  mention  is  made  of  a  Naga  or  serpent  with 
seven  heads ;  and  a  '  poisonous  serpent '  or  dragon, 
whom  nothing  but  '  the  fire-spirit '  could  subdue, 
threatens  '  with  his  flames  '  Gautama's  life.  The  latter 
is  reported  to  have  said :  '  If  the  place  were  full  of 
fiery  serpents,  they  could  not  hurt  one  hair  of  my 
body,  how  much  less  this  one  evil  creature.'  Again, 
Gautama  is  represented,  like  Siva,  sitting  on  a  serpent, 
as  if  its  conqueror.  Among  his  followers  Mara  desig- 
nates some  as  '  my  army  of  warriors,'  and  literally  as 

1  Romantic  History,  99-227. 


40  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

'  the  Nagas  (serpents),  each  riding  on  a  pitch-black 
cloud  and  launching  forth  the  fiery  lightnings.'  Like 
as  the  sun  gains  the  victory  over  the  dark  cloud 
with  its  serpent-formed  lightning,  so  Gautama-Buddha, 
whose  symbol  is  the  sun,  gains  the  victory  over  his 
antagonist  Mara,  who  is  followed  by  fiery  serpents,  and 
who  is  himself  described  as  a  poisonous  serpent.  It  is 
implied  that  Gautama  is  the  organ  of  the  fire-spirit, 
who  can  conquer  this  serpent.  Buddha  is  sometimes 
represented  as  a  ram  or  lamb,  and  since  the  constellation 
of  the  Serpent  is  placed  on  the  sphere  opposite  to 
Aries,  the  spring-equinoctial  sign,  at  the  rising  of  which 
Buddha  was  born,  we  may  assert,  that  Mara,  the  devil, 
is  identified,  at  least  connected  with  the  evil  Naga,  the 
poisonous  serpent.1  It  may  now  be  regarded  as  highly 
probable,  that  the  Buddhists,  like  the  Egyptians  and 
the  tradition  in  the  Apocrypha  of  the  Septuagint,  dis- 
tinguished a  good  serpent  from  an  evil  one.  The  good 
serpent  was  on  the  Nile  connected  with  the  solar  disc ; 
but  the  fire,  which  had  been  the  earlier  symbol  of  this 
serpent,  was  referred  to  lightning. 

The  Messiah. 

The  appearance  of  Gautama  is  described  as  '  full  of 
grace,'  his  body  as  surrounded  with  a  '  glory '  similar 
to  the  sun ;  and  in  the  representations  of  this  glory  fiery 
tongues  are  discernible,  whilst  two  men  are  placed  near 
him,  one  to  his  right  hand,  the  other  to  his  left.  Before 
Ananda's  conversion,  the  disciples  of  Gautama  are  de- 
scribed as  sitting  on  his  right  hand  and  on  his  left. 
Buddha  is  represented  as  a  ram  or  lamb,  which  symbol 
as  we  have  seen,  refers  to  the  sun  in  the  sign  of  Aries. 
Buddha  is  never  represented  as  a  bull,  like  Mithras  and 

1  Romantic  History,  219,  220.  The  Hebrew  word  Nachash,  '  serpent/  is 
connected  with  Naga.  All  heroes  of  light  were  opposed  by  heroes  of  dark- 
ness, symbolised  by  serpents  (see  following  Chapter). 


6  THE    LION    FROM    THE    TRIBE    OF    SAKYA.  41 

the  more  ancient  solar  heroes  of  the  time  when 
Taurus  was  the  spring-equinoctial  sign.  He  is  also 
called  *  the  lion  from  the  tribe  of  Sakya,'  and  '  un- 
equalled among  those  born  of  women.'  The  '  heaven- 
descended  mortal,'  full  of  grace,  brings  '  truth '  to  the 
earth,  '  the  incomparable  truth,'  that  is,  '  the  way  of 
life'  and  of  'immortality.'  At  no  time  Buddha  received 
this  knowledge  '  from  a  human  source,'  that  is,  from 
flesh  and  blood.  His  source  was  ( the  power  of  his 
Divine  wisdom,'  the  spiritual  power  or  Maya,  which  he 
already  possessed  before  his  incarnation.  It  was  by 
this  divine  power,  which  is  also  called  '  the  Holy  Ghost,' 
that  he  became  'the  Saviour,'  the  '  Kung-teng,'  the 
Anointed  or  Messiah,  to  whom  prophecies  had  pointed. 
Buddha  was  regarded  as  the  supernatural  light  of  the 
world  ;  and  this  world  to  which  he  came  was  his  own, 
his  possession,  for  he  is  styled :  '  the  Lord  of  the  world.' x 
As  Gautama  was  born  under  the  two  trees  which 
symbolise  knowledge  and  life,  so,  according  to  Bud- 
dhistic legends,  the  evil  and  the  good  in  man  are 
symbolised  by  trees.  The  object  of  man's  life  ought  to 
be  to  destroy  '  the  tree  of  evil '  in  himself,  so  that  his 
'  tree  of  good  '  may  grow  up  and  bear  fruit.  This  can 
only  be  accomplished  by  prayer  and  humility,  which 
raise  man  to  the  height  of  <  the  unknown' — of  the  '  san- 
sarum  dalain,'  to  the  knowledge  of  the  '  sansara.'  Man 
must  take  an  active  part  in  the  redemption  of  his  soul, 
yet  '  the  redemption  comes  not  from  ourselves,  but  from 
causes  which  are  independent  of  us.'2  Although  the 
actions  in  previous  existences  of  the  soul  were  held  to 
accelerate  or  retard  this  redemption,  the  latter  must 
have  been  believed  to  be  also  dependent  on  the  influences 
of  higher  but  cognate  spirits,  and,  above  all,  on  the 
highest,  the  self-dependent  Spirit.  This  is  proved  by 
the  transmitted  story  of  Gautama's  water-baptism. 

1  Romantic  History,  169,  16,  34,  49,  53,  197,  248,  241,  243,  249,  296. 

2  Bastian,  Reisen  in  China,  '  Anhangj'  Romantic  History,  167. 


42  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

Immediately  after  his  birth,  spirits  descend  and  bring 
water  to  wash  the  holy  child,  a  transmitted  occurrence, 
which  seems  by  Buddhists  to  have  been  regarded 
as  a  supernatural  act  of  purification.  But  the  real 
symbol  of  the  sanctity  which  Gautama  was  to  attain, 
the  outward  sign  of  the  inward  grace,  was  his  water- 
baptism.  We  shall  see  that  the  latter  preceded,  and  was 
probably  regarded  as  a  symbol  of,  his  'fire-baptism.' 
The  water-baptism  of  Gautama  has  not  been  sufficiently 
established  hitherto.  The  Buddhists  in  Thibet  have  a 
water-baptism,  Tuisol,  preceded  by  confession  of  sins ; 
but  this  rite  might  not  have  been  sanctioned  by  Buddha. 
In  a  Chinese  life  of  Buddha  we  read  that,  '  living  at 
Vaisali,  Buddha  delivered  the  baptism  which  rescues 
from  life  and  death,  and  confers  salvation.'  This  state- 
ment may  have  been  connected  with  the  account  of 
Gautama's  crossing  the  river  Nairanyana.  Before  step- 
ping into  the  water,  he  expressed  his  resolution  to  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  all  the  Budclhas,  to  reach  '  the  other 
shore,'  to  '  procure  salvation  for  all  men  and  conduct 
them  to  the  other  shore,' 1  that  is,  to  the  locality 
of  Nirvana,  to  '  the  heavenly  country,'  where  all  the 
Budclhas  are,  to  the  sun.  A  striking  parallel  must  here 
be  pointed  out.  Israel's  crossing  of  the  Eed  Sea  was 
by  Paul  regarded  as  the  baptism  of  Israel's  fathers  ;  and, 
in  harmony  with  Paulinic  allegories,  Israel's  crossing  of 
Jordan  to  reach  the  promised  land  has  by  Bunyan  been 
described  as  a  type  of  entering  the  heavenly  land,  Jeru- 
salem which  is  above,  with  its  twelve  gates,2  and  the 
tree  of  life,  where  the  light  shines  as  the  sun.  Even  in 
the  terrestrial  type  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  that  is,  in 
Zion,  which  the  Babylonian  Isaiah  had  called  Beulah, 
Bunyan  describes  the  sun  as  shining  day  and  night. 
'  Christian  '  attempts,  with  much  hesitation,  to  proceed  to 

1  Beal,    Rom.    Hist.,    194-198 ;     ScHagintweit,   Buddhism   in    Thibet ; 
Asiatic  Journ.,  xx.  172. 

2  Twelve  solar   mansions,   or   signs   of  the  Zodiac ;  conip.  Ernst  von 
Bunsen,  Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes  bet  alien  Nationen. 


GAUTAMA  S   WATER-BAPTISM.  43 

the  other  shore,  but  he  is  unable  to  cross  the  river 
unaided.  As  in  Isaiah  the  Lord  is  recorded  to  have 
said,  '  When  thou  passest  through  the  waters  I  will  be 
with  thee,'  and  as  Christ,  the  Angel  of  God,  was  with 
the  Israelites  when  they  crossed  the  Eed  Sea,  so  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Wisdom  of  God,  assists  ;  Christian '  in  cross- 
ing the  river.1 

Gautama  is  described  as  crossing  a  certain  stream  in 
order, to  reach  the  land  beyond,  Nirvana  with  the  Bodhi- 
tree,  the  tree  of  knowledge  or  tree  of  life.  Having 
entered  the  river  and  bathed,  whilst  spirits  '  showered 
down  upon  him  every  kind  of  flower  and  perfume,  he 
attempted  to  proceed  to  the  other  shore  of  the  river,' 
but  from  want  of  strength  after  his  six  years'  penance, 
'he  was  unable  to  reach  the  opposite  bank.'  Then  the 
spirit  of  a  '  certain  great  tree,'  of  the  Bodhi-tree  or  tree 
of  knowledge,  which  is  also  the  tree  of  life,  and  which 
was  in  the  land  beyond,  or  heavenly  land,  in  Nirvana, 
the  sun,  this  Divine  spirit,  with  outstretched  arms, 
assisted  Gautama,  and  enabled  him  '  to  reach  the  shore 
in  safety.'  Hereupon  Gautama,  as  all  Buddhas  before 
him  had  done  after  crossing  the  holy  stream,  advanced 
to  the  Bodhi-tree,  and  thus  reached  '  supreme  wisdom  ' ; 
he  became  '  a  perfect  Buddha,'  and  entered  life  im- 
mortal.2 

1  Bunyan's  Pilgrim 's  Process-,  comp.  1  Cor.  x.  1-4;  Is.  xliii.  2; 
lxii.  4. 

2  The  basis  of  this  symbolism  about  crossing  a  stream  which  leads  to  the 
tree  of  life  and  immortality,  seems  to  have  been  the  Egyptian  tradition,  of 
Eastern  origin,  about  Osiris,  who  is  represented  with  the  tree  of  life  before 
him,  and  whose  body  had  been  cut  up  into  fourteen  parts.  The  Lord  of  the 
tombs  was  symbolized  by  the  setting  sun,  but  previously  by  the  mysterious 
Pleiades,  passing  through  the  stream  of  the  lower  world.  Thus  he  passed  by 
the  fourteen  invisible  lunar  asterisms  in  order  to  rise  again  in  the  East,  at 
the  end  of  the  supposed  stream  of  death,  or  the  Lethe-river  of  later  tradi- 
tions, the  waters  of  which  are  drunk  by  the  souls  of  the  departed  before 
entering  Elysium.  Mr.  R.  Haliburton,  of  Nova  Scotia,  is  prepared  to  prove 
that  Paradise  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  '  land  of  the  Pleiades/  in  which 
was  supposed  to  grow  '  the  tree  of  life.'  Since  the  solar  symbolism  took  the 
place  of  that  of  the  Pleiades,  our  interpretation  of  Nirvana  with  its  tree  of 
life,  as  the  sun,  is  thus  confirmed.    The  most  ancient  (Egyptian)  representa- 


44  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

The  Spirit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  or  Wisdom, 
who,  with  Indra,  the  highest  God,  is  present  at  the 
water-baptism  of  Gautama,  is  the  third  person  of  the 
Buddhistic  trias.1  That  spirit  is  identified  by  Buddhists 
with  the  fire-spirit,  the  good  Naga  or  serpent  of  Bud- 
dhistic tradition,  as  likewise  with  the  Wisdom  or  Word 
of  God, '  the  Saviour,'  of  whom  the  Book  of  Wisdom  (by 
Philo  ?)  states  that  it  was  symbolised  by  the  brazen  or 
rather  fiery  serpent  which  Moses  set  up  in  the  wilderness 
as  a  sign  of  salvation,  and  with  which,  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  Jesus  Christ, '  the  Wisdom  of  God,'  is  identified.3 
As  at  the  recorded  water-baptism  of  Gautama-Buddha, 
so  at  the  recorded  water-baptism  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  is, 
of  the  personified  Wisdom  of  God,  of  the  spiritual  Eock 
which  followed  the  Israelites  when  they  passed  through 
the  sea  and  were  '  baptised  unto  Moses,'  the  highest 
God  (Indra,  Jehovah)  and  the  Spirit  of  God  were 
present,3  that  is,  not  only  the  highest  God,  but  also  '  the 
Holy  Ghost,'  through  whom  the  incarnation  of  Gautama- 
Buddha  and  of  Jesus  Christ  is  recorded  to  have  been 
brought  about,  by  the  descent  of  that  Divine  power 
upon  the  two  virgins,  Maya  and  Mary. 

tion  of  the  tree  of  life  (about  B.C.  1400),  is  a  palm,  in  Greek  phoinix  (Job 
xxix.  18;  Ps.  xcii.  13),  and  Herodotus  called  the  Egyptian  pi-enech,  which 
means  seon,  the  phoenix,  which  he  described  as  like  an  eagle.  It  is,  we 
suggest,  the  eagle  on  the  back  of  the  apis,  that  is,  of  Taurus  with  the 
Pleiades,  from  whence,  that  is  from  the  Matarii,  the  Matarisvan  or 
messenger  of  Agni  brought  down  the  fire,  according  to  Mr.  Ilaliburtoivs  dis- 
covery. (Ernst  von  Bunsen,  Die  Plejaden  unci  der  Thierkreis,  43-47,  95- 
100.) 

1  In  the  Buddhistic  Trinity-symbol  the  tree  represents  the  third  link, 
the  Holy  Spirit  or  Wisdom  of  God,  the  Sophia  Achamoth  of  the  Gnostics. 
Pointed  out  by  Mr.  A.  Lillie. 

2  Wisd.  ix.  17  ;  vii.  27  ;  xvi.  6,  7,  12  ;  xviii.  15 :  comp.  Ecclus.  xxiv. ; 
Prov.  viii.  22,  31,  and  JEssenic  Doctrines  in  the  Septuagint,  chapter  iv. 

3  The  symbol  of  the  Spirit  of  God  was  the  dove,  in  Greek,  peleia 
(Pleiades?),  and  the  Samaritans  had  a  brazen  fiery  dove,  instead  of  the 
brazen  fiery  serpent.  Both  referred  to  fire,  the  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  the  latter  is  referred  to  Christ.  Birds  are  connected  with  the  Egyptian 
representations  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  thus  with  fire,  a  very  ancient  symbol 
lism.    (Kuhn,  Die  fTerabkunft  cles  Feuevs.) 


GAUTAMA  S    FIRE-BAPTISM.  45 

Gautama,  '  the  completely  enlightened  One,'  the 
'  Omniscient,'  is  recorded  to  have  said  that  he  possessed 
*  perfect  inspiration,'  that  he  had  reached  that  point  of 
development  which  enabled  him  to  '  see  clearly  immor- 
tality, the  way  which  leads  to  immortality,'  that  is, '  the 
opened  gates  of  Nom.' l  These  we  may  identify  with 
'  the  straight  path '  which  leads  to  Nirvana,  to  the  tree 
of  life,  and  thus  to  immortality.  By  entering  these 
gates  man  enters  into  the  world  of  miracles,  and  is 
transformed  into  a  higher  being. 

On  one  occasion,  towards  the  end  of  his  life  on 
earth,  Gautama  is  reported  to  have  been  transfigured 
or  '  baptized  with  fire.'  When  on  a  mountain  in  Ceylon, 
suddenly  a  flame  of  light  descended  upon  him  and 
encircled  the  crown  of  his  head  with  a  circle  of  light. 
The  mount  is  called  Pandava,  or  yellow-white  colour. 
It  is  said  that  '  the  glory  of  his  person  shone  forth  with 
double  power,'  that  his  body  was  '  glorious  as  a  bright 
golden  image,'  that  he  '  shone  as  the  brightness  of  the 
sun  and  moon,'  that  bystanders  expressed  their  opinion, 
that  he  could  not  be  an  '  every-day  person,'  nor  '  a 
mortal  man,'  and  that  his  body  was  divided  into  three 
parts,  from  each  of  which  a  ray  of  light  issued  forth.2 


Gautama-Buddha  taught  that  all  men  are  brothers, 
that  charity  ought  to  be  extended  to  all,  even  to 
enemies,  that  men  ought  to  love  truth  and  hate  the  lie, 
that  good  works  must  not  be  done  openly,  but  rather 
in  secret,  that  the  dangers  of  riches  are  to  be  avoided, 
that  man's  highest  aim  ought  to  be  purity  in  thought, 
word  and  deed,  since  the  higher  beings  are  pure, 
whose  nature  is  akin  to  that  of  man.3     All  sacrifices 

1  Bastian,  Reisen  in  China,  'Anhang.' 

2  Eitel,  Buddhism,  121  ;   Beal,  Romantic  History  of  Buddha,  177  ;  Rhys 
Davids,  Buddhism,  189  ;  Koppen,  Das  Leben  Buddhas. 

3  In  the  Dhammapada,  Scriptural  texts  or  parables  of  Buddha,  as  brought 


40  THE  LEGEXPS  OF  BUDDHA. 

are  to  be  abolished,  as  there  can  be  no  merit  in  them. 
If  it  were  right  to  sacrifice  a  sheep,  it  would  be  right 
also  to  sacrifice  a  child,  a  relative  or  dear  friend,  '  and 
so  do  better.'  Sakya-Muni  healed  the  sick,  performed 
miracles,  and  taught  his  doctrines  to  the  poor.  He 
selected  his  first  disciples  among  laymen,  and  even  two 
women,  the  mother  and  the  wife  of  his  first  convert, 
the  sick  Yasa,  became  his  followers.  He  subjected 
himself  to  the  religious  obligations  imposed  by  the 
recognised  authorities,  avoided  strife,  and  illustrated 
his  doctrines  by  his  life.  He  preached  only  in  his  own 
Magadhi,  or  Pah  language,  but  it  is  recorded  that  even 
strangers  understood  him,  everyone  of  his  hearers 
thinking  himself  addressed  in  his  own  language.  Those 
who  belonged  to  the  lowest  class  or  caste,  the  Sudra  or 
slaves,  were  especially  the  objects  of  his  care,  since  the 
Law-book  of  Manu  had  expressly  excluded  them  from 
the  knowledge  and  the  rewards  of  the  life  to  come. 
We  may  assume  from  what  we  know,  that  to  the  poor 
and  uneducated  he  only  spoke  in  proverbs,  whilst  he 
gave  to  know  to  the  disciples  the  mysteries  of  the 
Wisdom  from  above.  The  '  holy  Prince '  and  '  the 
Prince  of  Mortals '  is  recorded  to  have  said  :  '  You  may 
remove  from  their  base  the  snowy  mountains,  you  may 
exhaust  the  waters  of  the  ocean,  the  firmament  may 
fall  to  earth,  but  my  words  in  the  end  will  be  accom- 
plished.' 1 

To  a  Brahman,  who  was  presiding  over  a  '  plough- 
feast,'  and  who  compared  his  labour  with  the  men- 
dicancy of  Buddha,  the  latter  replied  by  a  parable,  of 
which  various  versions  have  been  transmitted  to  us. 
'  Brahman,  I  plough  and  sow,  and  of  my  ploughing 
and  sowing  I  reap  imperishable  fruit.  .  .  .  My  field 
is   the  Dliarma   (truth)  ;  the  weeds  which   I  pluck  up 

to  Birmah  by  Buddaghosa,  occurs   the   following  :  '  Buddha's   third  com- 
mandment, Commit  no  adultery,  this  law  is  broken  by  even  looking  at  the 
wife  of  another  with  a  lustful  mind.'     (Rogers,  Buddaghom  Parables,  153.) 
1  Romantic  History,  158,  52,  138. 


THE    PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER.  47 

(are)  the  cleaving  to  existence ;  the  plough  which  I  use 
(is)  wisdom  ;  the  seed  which  I  sow,  the  seeking  of 
purity ;  the  work  which  I  perform,  attention  to  pre- 
cepts ;  the  harvest  which  I  reap  is  Nirvana.'  *  Having 
explained  these  matters  at  greater  length,  he  exhorted 
the  Brahman  to  sow  in  the  same  field,  unfolding  before 
him  the  advantage  of  obtaining  an  entrance  to  the 
paths  which  lead  to  the  destruction  of  sorrow.' 1  This 
took  place  in  a  village  near  Rajagrihu,  when  the 
Brahman,  named  Bharadwaja,  was  converted  by  Gau- 
tama. Another  parable  teaches  that  tares  grow  up 
with  the  wheat. 

'  Dharma '  means  truth  or  religion  ;  Wisdom  is  iden- 
tical with  the  Zoroastrian  Divine  Word,  or  '  honover,' 
through  which  God  reveals  his  mysteries  to  man ;  the 
'  cleaving  to  existence,'  or  '  upadana,'  which  is  one  of 
the  key-notes  of  Buddhism,  ever  means  the  character 
of  the  man  about  to  die,  the  final  shape  of  a  man's 
personal  longings  or  dislikes.  If  this  character  be 
centred  *  on  Nirvana,  then  to  Nirvana,  to  the  place 
where  God  and  all  the  Buddhas  live,  to  the  sun,  man 
will  go ;  he  will  have  a  spiritual  body  like  to  the  shining 
body  of  Brahma,  he  will  shine  as  the  Arhats,  as  the 
righteous  shine  (like  the  sun)  in  the  heavenly  country, 
in  Nirvana,  the  sun.  But  if  there  is  the  least  remnant 
of  a  desire  after  further  material  existence,  he  will 
then  be  born  again  to  die  again  in  some  material  con- 
dition or  other,  whether  as  the  lowest  reptile  or  as  the 
highest  of  reasonable  beings  in  the  universe  who  has 
not  yet  entered  Nirvana,  the  sun,  where  matter  is  anni- 
hilated, and  where  the  harvest  of  the  seed  of  Divine 
Wisdom,-  of  the  Word,  takes  place. 

Gautama's  cousin  and  favourite  disciple,  Ananda, 
once  stood  at  a  fountain,  with  one  of  the  despised 
Chandala    women,    called    Prakriti,   and    said    to    her : 

1  Spende  Hardy,  Christianity  and  Buddhism  compared,  9G  ;  comp.  Rhys 
Davids,  I.  c.  134,  135,  and  72. 


48  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

'Give  me  to  drink.'  She  pointed  out  her  low  caste, 
which  forbad  her  to  accost  him  ;  but  Gautama's  disciple 
said  :  '  My  sister,  I  do  not  ask  after  your  family,  I  ask 
you  for  water,'  whereupon  she  became  a  disciple,  and 
was  saved  for  the  spiritual  life.  A  similar  spirit  breathes 
through  the  legend,  according  to  which  the  gift  of  a 
poor  man  filled  Buddha's  eleemosynary  pot  with  flowers, 
whilst  rich  men  were  not  able  to  fill  it  with  10,000 
measures.  There  is  a  treasure  laid  up  by  man,  said 
Gautama,  which  is  '  hid  secure  and  passes  not  away,' 
which  '  no  thief  can  steal,'  and  which  man  '  takes  with 
him.'  The  lamp  of  a  poor  woman  was  the  only  one 
which  burnt  during  the  whole  night  at  a  festivity  in 
honour  of  Buddha.1 

Gautama-Buddha  is  said  to  have  announced  to  his 
disciples  that  the  time  of  his  departure  had  come  : 
'Arise,  let  us  go  hence,  my  time  is  come.'  Turned 
towards  the  East,  and  with  folded  hands,  he  prayed  to 
the  highest  Spirit  who  inhabits  the  region  of  purest 
light,  to  Maha-Brahma,  to  the  '  king  in  heaven,  to 
Devaraja,  who  from  his  throne  looked  down  on  Gautama, 
and  appeared  to  him  in  a  self-chosen  personality.  This 
highest  God  to  whom  Buddha  prayed,  is  Isvara-Deva, 
(or  Abidha), '  the  architect  of  the  world  ' ;  and  the  place 
of  his  throne  is  '  the  centre  of  supernatural  light,' 
where  there  is  no  darkness,  sin,  birth  or  death,  the 
Nirvana,  the  sun. 

The  doctrines  of  Gautama-Buddha  centred  in  the 
belief  of  a  personal  God,  and  in  man's  continued  per- 
sonal existence  after  death.  Buddhism  resolves  itself 
into  a  religion  of  humanity.  The  goal  is  the  same  as 
that  of  the  Hebrew  Psalmist :  '  Unto  Thee  shall  all  flesh 
come.'  It  is  recorded,  how  Gautama  announced  to  his 
disciples,  that  another  Buddha,  and  therefore  another 
Angel  in  human  form,  another  organ  or  advocate  of  the 
Wisdom   from  above,  would  descend  from    heaven   to 

1  Koppen,  Dos  Lebcn  Buddhas,  i. 


NO    DOCTRINE    OF    ATONEMENT.  49 

earth,  and  that  he  would  be  called  Maitreya,  or  '  Son  of 
love.'  It  is  thus  implied,  that  also  the  future  Tatha- 
gata  or  '  He  that  should  come,'  that  the  Messiah,  whom 
the  Buddhists  still  expect,  will  descend  as  '  Holy  Ghost,' 
like  Gautama-Buddha.  So  do  the  Hindus  expect  Kalki, 
the  originator  of  a  new  age.  The  other  advocate  or 
Paraclete  promised  by  Gautama,  will  likewise  be  a 
chosen  instrument  of  the  Spirit  from  above,  a  Spirit 
of  truth,  a  heavenly  messenger  full  of  grace,  who 
reveals  the  truth. 

It  was  at  Allahabad,  three  months  after  having 
announced  his  departure,  that  Gautama  died,  and 
Buddha  returned  to  heaven,  entered  Nirvana,  the  sun. 
The  miracles  which  attended  his  death  have  been  trans- 
mitted in  various  forms  by  probably  later  legends.  The 
coverings  of  the  body  unrolled  themselves,  the  lid  of 
his  coffin  was  opened  by  supernatural  power,  and 
Gautama-Buddha's  feet  appeared  to  his  disciples  in  the 
form  which  they  knew  so  well.  This  was  an  answer  to 
Kasyapa's  prayer.  The  latter  asked  Ananda  why  the 
departed  master's  feet  were  soiled  with  wet ;  he  was 
told  that  a  weeping  woman  had  embraced  Gautama's 
feet  shortly  before  his  death,  and  that  her  tears  had 
fallen  on  his  feet  and  left  the  marks  on  them.1 

Gautama-Buddha  constantly  taught  the  great  truth 
conveyed  in  the  phrase  '  vicarious  suffering,'  or  suffering 
borne  for  the  good  of  another.  The  commonest  story 
about  him  is,  that  in  a  former  birth  he  gave  his  body 
and  blood  to  a  hawk  to  save  the  life  of  a  dove  (did  he 
know  it  as  the  symbol  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ?).  All  the 
Jatakas  are  full  of  this  idea.  But  Buddhism  knows 
absolutely  nothing  of  the  idea  of  an  offended  God,  who 
requires  reconciliation  by  vicarious  suffering. 

1  From  the  Vinaya-Pitaka  as  known  in  China  (Beal), 


60  THE  LEGENDS  OP  BUDDHA. 

Retrospect. 

With  the  remarkable  exception  of  the  death  of 
Jesus  on  the  cross,1  and  of  the  doctrine  of  atonement 
by  vicarious  suffering,  which  is  absolutely  excluded  by 
Buddhism,  the  most  ancient  of  the  Buddhistic  records 
known  to  us  contain  statements  about  the  life  and  the 
doctrines  of  Gautama-Buddha  which  correspond  in  a 
remarkable  manner,  and  impossibly  by  mere  chance, 
with  the  traditions  recorded  in  the  Gospels  about  the 
life  and  doctrines  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  still  more 
strange  that  these  Buddhistic  legends  about  Gautama 
as  the  Angel-Messiah  refer  to  a  doctrine  which  we  find 
only  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul  and  in  the  fourth  Gospel. 

This  can  be  explained  by  the  assumption  of  a  common 
source  of  revelation  ;  but  then  the  serious  question  must 
be  considered,  why  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah, 
supposing  it  to  have  been  revealed,  and  which  we  find 
in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  is  not  contained  in  any  of 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  which  can  possibly 
have  been  written  before  the  Babylonian  Captivity,  nor 
in  the  first  three  Gospels.  Can  the  systematic  keeping 
back  of  essential  truth  be  attributed  to  God  or  to 
man?  Had  we  only  to  consider  the  statements  of 
Paul,  we  should  be  led  to  believe  in  the  gradual  revela- 
tion or  publication  of  the  mystery  kept  in  secret.  For 
he  declares  that  he  preached  '  the  hidden  wisdom,'  after 
that  he  had  '  renounced  the  hidden  things  of  dishonesty,' 
or,  rather, '  the  shameful  hiding,'  which  Moses  had  first 
introduced,  and  which  had  led  to  a  '  deceitful  handling,' 
or,  rather,  to  a  falsifying,  of  God's  Word.  According  to 
the  theory  we  are  considering,  it  would  have  been  Paul 
who,  not  doing  like  Moses,  had  first  '  commended  him- 
self to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God  '  by 
1  manifestation,'  or,  rather,   '  revelation   of  the  truth.' 

1  Among  the  prophecies  respecting  Buddha's  coming  is  the  assertion 
that  '  his  death  shall  be  a  quiet  and  painless  one.'     {Rom.  Hist.  51.) 


CONTINUITY    OF   DIVINE    INFLUENCES.  51 

In  this  case  it  might  not  have  been  before  the  second 
century  that,  by  the  publication  of  the  Gospel  after 
John,  the  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ  was  revealed  in  its 
absolute  fulness  and  purity.  The  first  Evangelists,  ac- 
cording to  this  theory,  had  to  consider  the  opposition 
of  the  Jewish  authorities,  who  had  forbidden  the  public 
preaching  of  this  secret  doctrine,  whilst  Jesus  is  implied 
to  have  forbidden  the  Apostles  forthwith  to  preach 
from  the  roofs  the  mysteries  which — so  we  are  told — 
he  had  made  known  to  them  alone,  whilst  speaking  only 
in  parables  to  the  people.  According  to  this  explana- 
tion of  the  problem  presented  to  us,  Jesus  must  have 
been  an  Essene. 

The  theory  of  an  essentially  similar  revelation  in 
East  and  West  would  harmonise  with  the  conceptions 
of  Paul.  He  writes  that  God  had  never  left  himself 
without  witness,  that  man's  conscience  is  the  witness  of 
God,  and  that  a  '  mystery '  was  hid  in  God  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  which  '  eternal  purpose  '  was  in 
his  time  made  known  as  it  had  in  former  times  not 
been  made  known.1  According  to  this  universalist 
conception,  held  by  Origen  and  Augustine,  Christian 
revelation  is  directly  connected  with  Divine  revelations 
at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  with  a  continuity  of  Divine 
influences. 

The  doctrine  of  an  Angel-Messiah  might,  therefore, 
have  been  first  revealed  in  the  East,  and  there  applied 
to  Gautama-Buddha.  On  this  hypothesis,  the  latter 
would  have  been  the  forerunner  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
for  this  reason  Buddhistic  tradition  would  have  been 
applied  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  introduced  into  the  New  Tes- 
tament Scriptures,  which  Eusebius  considered  '  highly 
probable.'  The  object  would  have  been  to  make  clear 
to  the  Initiated  of  tradition  the  connection  between 
Divine  revelations  in  East  and  West.  On  this  theory  it 
would  be  an  open  question  :  whether  Jesus  has  sanc- 

1  Rom.  ii.  14,  15;  Eph.  iii.  9-11. 
e  2 


52  THE  LEGENDS  OF  BUDDHA. 

tioned  the  application  to  himself  of  the  doctrine  about 
the  Ano-el-Messiah  ;  or  whether  it  was  not  till  after  his 
death  that  this  application  and,  therefore,  enlargement 
of  doctrine,  took  place. 

Did  such  connections  between  East  and  West  exist 
before  and  during  the  Apostolic  age,  that  we  may 
assume  as  possible  in  the  West  a  knowledge  of  Oriental 
tradition  ? 


53 


CHAPTER  IIT 

PYTHAGORAS   AND    THE    EAST. 

Introduction — Theory  on  the  Origin  of  the  Gods — Transmigration  of  souls — 
Eastern  knowledge  of  Pythagoras — The  Goddess  Hestia  —Pythagoras  and 
the  Dorians. 

Introduction. 

Is  the  East  the  direct  or  the  indirect  source  of  the 
doctrines  of  Pythagoras?  The  accounts  of  Pliny, 
Apuleius  and  others  about  the  travels  of  Pythagoras 
to  the  East,  as  well  as  to  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia,  may 
be  dismissed  as  insufficient  evidence.  And  yet,  since 
already  a  century  before  his  time  Psammetick  (b.c.  666 
-612)  had  opened  to  the  world  the  ports  of  Egypt, 
these  countries  can  have  been  visited  by  Pythagoras 
of  Samos,  the  contemporary  of  Tarquinius  Superbus 
(b.c.  540-510),  and  possibly  descended  from  Pythagoras, 
king  of  Kidrusi  in  Cyprus,  who  paid  tribute  to  Assur- 
banipal  in  B.C.  684.  But  the  earliest  authority  for  his 
journey  to  Egypt  does  not  reach  further  back  than  150 
years  after  his  death.  Even  without  having  been  in  the 
East,  the  founder  of  the  mystic,  ascetic,  and  apparently 
aristocratic  confederation  at  Crotona,  established  on  the 
basis  of  secrecy,  may  have  been  initiated  by  Greek 
hierophants  into  the  mysteries  of  a  hidden  wisdom 
which  was  not  unconnected  with  the  East.  The 
Eastern  origin  of  European  languages  is  proved  ;  and  it 
is  generally  admitted,  that  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of 
Greece  imported  from  the  East,  together  with  their 
language,  '  the  general  foundations  of  their  religion  and 
customs,'  also  that  they  continued   to  live  under  in- 


54  PYTHAGORAS   AND   THE    EAST. 

fluences  which  reached  them  from  the  East,  partly  by 
way  of  Thrace  and  the  Bosphorus,  partly  by  the  iEgean 
Sea  and  its  islands.  In  the  face  of  these  general  ad- 
missions, it  is  held  on  the  one  side,  that  Greek  philo- 
sophy was  essentially  the  product  of  the  Greek  brain, 
on  the  other,  that  the  entire  circle  of  Greek  conceptions 
was  imported  ready  made  from  without.1  We  submit 
that  some  new  light  can  be  thrown  on  this  question  by 
comparative  mythology. 


The  Origin  of  the  Gods. 

We  must  here  assume,  what  we  tried  to  prove  else- 
where, that  the  Cosmical  was  the  symbol  of  the  Ethical 
in  earliest  historical  times,  and  that  the  numbers,  by 
which,  according  to  Jamblichus  (before  a.d.  333),  the 
Egyptians  designated  their  divisions  in  the  heavens, 
that  is,  the  numbers  2,  4,  12,  36,  and  72,  can  be  all 
referred  to  astronomical  observations,  some  of  which 
preceded  the  invention  of  the  Zodiac.2  According 
to  the  contrary  argument,  as  elaborately  worked  out 
by  von  Thimus,  the  starting-point  of  symbolism  with 
all  nations  is  '  the  revealed  doctrine  of  aboriginal  times, 
as  transmitted  by  the  second  ancestor  of  mankind 
(Noah),  to  all  his  nearest  descendants  in  aboriginal, 
full  and  untarnished  purity.'  3 

Since  the  Pythagoraeans  maintained  th  at *  the  number 
rules  the  Cosmos,'  we  may  at  the  outset  suppose,  that 
the  first  Greek  philosopher  who  used  the  word  'cosmos' 
in  our    sense,  designating    thereby    the    order   in   the 

1  Zeller,  Die  Philosojihie  der  Griechen ;  Roth,  Geschichte  der  Abendland- 
ischen  Philosophie,  i.  74,  241 . 

2  Die  Plejaden  und  der  Thierkreis. 

3  Von  Thimus,  Harmonikale  Symbolik  des  Alterthums,  ii.  347.  The  theory 
about  the  harmony  of  the  spheres  was  symbolised  by  the  Mishkol  or  balance 
of  the  Kabbala,  with  which  was  connected  '  the  little  tongue  of  the  balance ' 
in  the  mystic  book  Jezirah.  These  two  expressions  can  be  shown  to  relate, 
like  the  Egyptian  balance  of  good  and  evil,  to  the  equinoctial  and  the  sol- 
stitial balance.  The  earliest  symbol  of  the  harmony  of  the  spheres  was 
Apollo's  lyre  of  seven  strings,  which  certainly  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Zodiac. 


SYMBOLISM    OF    NUMBERS.  55 

universe,  connected  the  numbers  with  that  order,  that 
he  regarded  them  as  figurative  expressions  of  those 
forces  in  nature  which  under  the  harmonising  influence 
of  a  Supreme  Will,  brought  about  the  regular  move- 
ments of  bodies  in  space,  and  thus  the  order  in  the 
universe.  From  this  point  of  view  the  Cosmos  might 
be  called  a  revelation  in  numbers. 

It  would  seem  that  the  Pythagorean  symbolism  of 
numbers  referred  originally,  and  perhaps  long  before 
Thales  and  Pythagoras,  neither  to  arithmetic  nor  to 
geometry  as  such,  but  to  a  mechanical  system  of  nature, 
to  the  relative  relations  of  cosmical  bodies,  to  the  order 
of  their  revolutions,  and  to  the  presumable  Divine  cause 
of  such  order.  This  is  not  the  place  to  inquire,  whether 
and  to  what  extent  the  atomistic  science  of  nature,  as 
taught  by  the  two  Grecian  philosophers,  Leucippus  and 
Democritus  (about  B.C.  461-361),  was  also  acknow- 
ledged, or  whether  it  was  opposed  by  Pythagoras.  Nor 
do  we  now  ask  whether  he,  like  the  Ionians  Anaxi- 
menes  (about  544),  and  Heraklitos  (about  513),  taught 
a  periodic  origin  and  passing  away  of  the  earth  and 
other  bodies  in  space.  But  the  views  of  Pythagoras 
about  the  origin  of  the  Gods  cannot  be  doubted,  since 
the  theogony,  according  to  the  views  of  his  tutor 
Pherecydes,  has  been  transmitted  to  us.  Next  to  the 
theogony  of  Hesiodus,  it  is  the  most  ancient  we  possess, 
and  its  substratum  can  be  shown  to  have  been  Eastern 
astronomy.  Although  it  may  have  possibly  been  Greece 
where  the  first  attempt  was  made  to  explain  the  Cosmos 
by  a  theory  on  its  origin,  it  was  Eastern  science  which 
gave  the  materials  for  such  speculations. 

According  to  Pherecydes  (about  B.C.  544),  or  rather 
according  to  the  '  Phoenician  '  tradition  to  which  he 
referred,  the  fundamental  cause  of  all  phenomena  in 
nature  is  Zeus  or  Chronos,  whom  he  also  calls,  but  dis- 
tinguishes in  a  certain  sense  from  Chthon,  that  is,  the 
material  substances  of  the  earth,  including  the  sea. 
He  designates  Chronos  as  a  deity,  dwelling  in  that  part 


56  PYTHAGORAS   AND    THE    EAST 

of  heaven  which  is  nearest  to  the  earth.  We  know 
that  Chronos  is  the  Seb  of  the  Egyptians,  and  with 
Ehea-Netpe  he  gave  birth  to  the  five  planets,  in  honour 
of  which,  five  additional  days  were  added  to  the  calendar 
of  360  days,  after  that  Thot,  the  God  of  history  and 
astronomy,  who  is  represented  as  riding  on  the  moon, 
and  whose  mystical  number  was  72,  had  played  at 
dice  with  the  moon,  and  gained  for  each  planet  the 
72nd  part  of  360  days.  This  Egyptian  legend  seems 
to  have  been  framed  after  the  Phoenician  legend  or 
myth  of  the  seven  children  of  Chronos  and  Ehea,  of 
which  the  youngest  had  been  translated  to  the  Gods. 
Movers  has  explained  these  seven  children  of  Zeus- 
Chronos  by  the  Pleiades,  one  of  which  seven  stars  had 
disappeared  in  course  of  time.  Since  Pherecydes  admits 
to  have  drawn  from  a  Phoenician  source,  he  must  have 
known  this  Phoenician  legend,  and  he  may  be  assumed 
to  have  connected  with  the  seven  sons  of  Zeus-Chronos 
the  seven  Patasci  of  the  Phoenicians,  and  the  Cabiri 
of  Egyptians  and  Greeks,  whom  some  identified  with 
the  sons  of  Ehea. 

Zeus-Chronos  thus  seems  to  have  been  by  Phere- 
cydes connected  with  the  Pleiades  in  Taurus,  as  the 
divinity  dwelling  in  these  seven  stars,  like  the  Sibut  of 
the  ancient  Babylonians,  the  Sebaot  or  Zabaot  of  the 
Hebrews,  and  other  deities.  This  hypothesis  is  con- 
firmed by  other  details  about  the  theogony  of  the  tutor 
of  Pythagoras.  The  first  creation  of  Zeus-Chronos  was 
fire.  According  to  the  Indian  myth  on  the  descent  of 
fire,  the  same  was  brought  to  earth  from  heaven  by  a 
messenger  of  Indra,  by  Agni,  called  the  Matarisvan. 
This  name,  Mr.  Haliburton,  of  Nova  Scotia,  has  con- 
nected with  the  Matarii,  as  the  Pleiades  are  still  called 
by  islanders  in  the  Pacific.  We  have  pointed  out  in 
another  place,1  that  the  fire-sticks  or  Arani  of  the 
Indians,  which  were  a  sacred  symbol  to  the  ancient 
Babylonians,  point  to  the  origin  of  the  Cross   as  con- 

1  Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes  bet  alien  Nationen;  Die  Plejaden  und  der  Thierkreis. 


THE    CROSS   AND    THE    FIRE.  57 

nected  with  the  symbolism  of  fire.  It  can  be  shown 
that  Bel's  flaming  sword  which  turned  every  way,  and 
the  flaming  sword  of  the  Cherub,  that  is,  Kirub  or  bull, 
according  to  the  language  of  Cuneiform  Inscriptions, 
originally  referred  to  the  Pleiades  in  Taurus,  from  whence 
fire  was  supposed  to  have  first  descended  upon  the  earth. 

The  connection  of  the  Cross  with  fire  receives  a 
remarkable  confirmation  by  the  Chinese  symbol  of  the 
headless  cross  or  Tau.  It  becomes  increasingly  pro- 
bable that  the  Chinese  interpretation  of  the  cross- 
symbol  is  more  ancient  than  the  provable  introduction 
of  the  same  into  other  countries.  For  '  it  is  now 
asserted  by  one  of  our  best  Sinologists  (Dr.  Edkins), 
that  the  phonetic  roots  of  the  Chinese  language  are  the 
same  as  those  of  Europe  ;  in  other  words,  that  the 
Chinese  phonetic  roots  are  those  from  which  the  lan- 
guages of  Europe,  and  therefore  of  India,  were  originally 
developed.'1 

Among  the  earliest  and  simplest  ideographic  symbols 
in  the  Chinese  language  is  one  which  resembles  precisely 
our  capital  letter  T,  without  the  final  strokes,  signifying 
that  which  is  '  above,'  and  the  converse  of  this,  the  T 
resting  on  its  base  (j.),  signifies  that  which  is  '  below.' 
In  both  cases  a  point  or  a  comma,  as  if  a  tongue  of  fire, 
is  added,  as  similarly  in  Europe  a  dot  or  tongue  of  fire 
is  placed  occasionally  over  an  angel  or  divine  messenger, 
to  signify  his  more  than  human  character.  This  dot, 
as  signifying  fire,  is  clearly  pointed  out  in  the  symbol 
for  fire  itself  in  the  Chinese  language,  and  it  is  this  :  a 
piece  of  wood  boring  into  another  piece,  and  on  the 
opposite  side  a  spark  issuing,  indicating  the  generation 
of  fire  by  friction,  thus  ■  K.  Now,  the  dot  as  signifying 
fire  was  placed,  as  Agni  was  placed  by  the  Indians,  in  a 
place  of  pre-eminence  over  the  visible  world.  Hence, 
connecting  this  idea  with  that  of  the  former,  with  the 

1  Professor  Baal  in  the  '  President's  Address,'  Journal  of  the  Plymouth 
Institution,  vol.  vi.,  part  i.;  pp.  21,  22,  from  whence  the  following  extract  is 
derived. 


58  PYTHAGORAS    AND    THE    EAST. 

symbol  for  height  or  heaven,  we  have  the  complete  idea 
represented  symbolically  of  the  supreme  power  pictured 
as  fire  or  a  spark  presiding  over  the  lower  world,  and 
so  placed  above  it.  This  symbolism  is  visible  every- 
where. In  Egypt  we  find  the  well-known  '  key  of  the 
Nile '  in  the  hand  of  Isis,  denoting  simply  the  supreme 
power  exercised  by  that  divinity.  The  same  symbol  in 
China  denotes  the  supreme  Lord  or  Euler  of  the  Uni- 
verse, and  is,  in  fact,  a  part  of  the  expression  used  to 
signify  '  God.'  We  have  here,  then,  one  of  the  earliest 
inventions  of  man  by  which  is  denoted  something 
'  above,'  that  which  is  visible  to  the  eye,  or  •  heaven.' 

Hence  the  symbol  T  means  to  come  down  from 
above,  where  the  dot  or  fiery  tongue  denotes  a  spark 
or  flame  descending  from  the  upper  world,  which  is 
signified  by  T.  Hence  again,  J_  means  the  lower  world, 
and  the  symbol  J>  means  to  go  up  from  below,  or  to 
ascend.  The  Chinese  imagine  that  there  are  three 
worlds  or  spheres,  corresponding  to  the  Sanskrit  vhu, 
vhuvar,  and  svar,  and  the  Chinese  symbolise  these  three 
heavens  by  three  lines,  =.  When  they  wish  to  symbolise 
the  idea  of  Lord  or  Euler  of  the  three  spheres,  they 
cross  the  three  horizontal  lines  by  a  perpendicular  line, 
5E.1  The  Chinese  add  to  this  symbol  the  dot  for  a 
1  flame '  or  '  fire '  above  it,  thus  =E.2 

When  solar-symbolism  took  the  place  of  fire-sym- 
bolism, the  sun's  disc  took  the  place  of  the  fiery  tongue, 
and  thus  originated  the  so-called  handle-cross  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  symbol  of  life.  As  symbol  of  life  it  is 
represented  without  the  circle  under  the  nostrils  of  a 
Pharaoh,  whilst  a  line  connects  the  Tau-cross  with  the 
sun  or  solar  disc.  Thus  was  expressed  in  an  Egyptian 
figure  or  symbol,  similar  to  one  of  the  Chinese,  how  the 
God  whose  symbol  was  held  to  be  the  sun,  breathed 
into  the  nostrils  of  man  '  the  breath  of  life.' 

1  The  Papal  crozier  has  exactly  the  same  form. 

2  Professor  Beal  in  a  letter  to  the  author. 


SYMBOLISM    OF   THE    CANDLESTICK.  69 

Not  only  the  Tau-cross  of  the  Egyptians,  but  also 
the  symbolism  represented  by  the  candlestick  of  Moses, 
astronomically  explained  by  Philo  and  Josephus,  may 
be  connected  with  the  Chinese  symbol  for  the  ruler  of 
the  three  worlds  or  of  the  universe.  But  Moses  did  not 
only  represent  a  flame  over  the  central  candlestick,  fol- 
lowing the  analogy  of  the  fiery  tongue  over  the  vertical 
line  of  the  divine  Chinese  symbol,  he  also  represented  a 
flame  at  the  six  ends  of  the  three  horizontal  lines  of  this 
Eastern  symbol.  As  the  sun's  disc  over  the  Egyptian 
Tau-cross  had  taken  the  place  of  the  fiery  tongue  above 
the  similar  Chinese  Tau,  so,  according  to  the  explana- 
tion of  Philo,  the  central  lamp  of  the  candlestick  referred 
to  the  sun,  although  the  Initiated  in  the  deeper  know- 
ledge or  gnosis  knew  that  the  central  lamp  symbolised 
the  Word  of  God,  which,  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom, 
possibly  composed  by  Philo,  is  said  to  have  been 
symbolised  by  the  fiery  serpent  in  the  desert.1 

The  reversed  Tau-cross,  symbol  of  the  lower  world, 
with  the  Chinese  perhaps  the  most  ancient  of  the  two, 
may  be  regarded  as  having  referred  in  the  first  place  to 
the  horizontal  balance  of  aboriginal  times,  which  con- 
nected the  two  determining  single  stars  on  the  horizon, 
like  Aldebaran  and  Antares,  by  Indians  called  '  rohin  '  or 
red,  no  doubt  because  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun 
made  them  appear  red.2  According  to  this  hypothesis, 
the  vertical  line  of  this  symbol  would  date  from  a  later 
time,  and  would  point  to  the  vertical  balance,  formed 
by  the  culminations  of  these  determining  stars.  These 
three  points  in  the  sphere  formed  the  very  ancient  holy 
triangle,  which  in  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy  in  the  Jewish 
Temple  was  represented  by  the  Shechina  in  the  midst  and 
above  the  two  Cherubim,  and  which  later  was  connected 
with  the  Divine  Trinity  in  Unity.3 

1  Nackash  means  in  Hebrew  '  brass  '  and  l  serpent .' 

2  According  to  Mr.  Lockyer's  explanation. 
8  Die  Plejaden  und  der  Thierkreis. 


60  PYTHAGORAS    AND    THE    liAST. 

If  the  astronomical  origin  of  this  Oriental  symbolism 
is  proved,  as  also  its  introduction  in  the  West  in  pre- 
Mosaic  times,  it  may  be  unhesitatingly  asserted  that  the 
connection  of  Zeus-Chronos  by  Pherecydes  with  that 
part  of  the  earth  which  was  nearest  to  *  heaven,'  points 
to  the  above  astronomical  symbolism.  We  may  at  the 
outset  assume,  that  what  the  tutor  of  Pythagoras 
conceived  as  '  heaven '  was  the  exclusively  spiritual 
or  non-material  world,  which  notion  we  find  in  the 
Zendavesta  and  in  Ionic  tradition,  but  which  was  dis- 
tinguished, uncompromisingly  by  non-East-Iranian  and 
non-Ionic  traditions,  from  the  material  world.  This 
system  of  two  worlds  may  be  assumed  to  have  origi- 
nated in  the  important  discovery  of  the  horizontal,  later 
equinoctial  Balance,  formed  by  the  two  determining 
stars  on  the  horizon,  reddened  by  the  sun,  and  which 
seemed  to  divide  the  Cosmos  into  two  parts.  The  light 
hemisphere  seems  to  have  been  originally  regarded  as 
the  spiritual  world  ;  but  special  constellations,  later  the 
sun,  were  regarded  as  the  dwelling-place  of  the  God 
who  causes  the  order  in  the  universe,  and  as  centre  of 
the  spiritual  world. 

This  symbolism  enables  us  to  suggest  that  Phere- 
cydes may  have  regarded  as  dwelling-place  of  Zeus- 
Chronos  the  Eastern  determining  star  of  aboriginal 
times,  AMebaran  in  Taurus,  or  the  Pleiades  in  the  same 
constellation.  Since  the  seven  sons  of  Zeus-Chronos  and 
of  Khea,  according  to  Phoenician  legend  were,  as  we 
showed,  connected  with  the  Pleiades,  this  constellation, 
inhabited  according  to  Old-Babylonian  and  to  Hebrew 
tradition,  by  the  God  Sibut-Sebaot,  appears  indeed  to 
have  designated  the  part  of  the  earth  which  was  con- 
ceived to  be  nearest  to  heaven  and  the  dwelling-place 
of  Zeus.  For  the  Pleiades  stood  once  nearest  to 
the  most  ancient  equinoctial  points  observed,  and  the 
parts  of  the  sphere  determined  by  the  latter  mark  those 
points  on  the  horizon  where  the  path  of  the  sun  appears 


EROS   AND    SEROSH.  61 

to  touch  the  path  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  equator,  and  thus  the  earth.  This  explanation 
is  finally  confirmed  by  the  fact  to  which  Pherecydes 
refers,  that  Zeus-Chronos  was  the  creator  of  fire  and 
then  of  the  earth,  as  if  the  creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
whilst  the  Pleiades,  as  already  said,  were  regarded  as 
the  locality  where  fire  originates. 

In  order  to  frame  the  world,  Zeus  transforms  him- 
self into  Eros,  the  god  of  love,  not  mentioned  in  the 
Homeric  Poems,  but  whom  the  Orphics  before  Phere- 
cydes explain  to  have  been  the  son  of  Chronos,  and  the 
first  who  issued  forth  from  the  mundane  egg.  Eros 
was  thus  connected  with  Castor,  the  first-born  of  the 
Dioscuri,  who  were  called  sons  of  Zeus  and  Leda.  Since 
the  Dioscuri  can  be  connected  with  the  Aswin,  or  two 
Bulls  of  Indian  tradition,  with  the  rising  and  setting- 
Taurus,  to  which  also  Osiris  and  the  Cherubim  and 
Seraphim  were  referred,  the  argument  gains  in  force, 
that  Zeus,  who  was  called  the  highest,  like  Osiris-Wasar, 
according  to  the  most  ancient  Greek  theogony  known  to 
us,  was  supposed  to  be  the  God  inhabiting  the  Pleiades 
in  Taurus. 

Eros  became  the  vicar  of  Zeus  and  the  framer  of 
the  world,  and  so  Serosh  took  the  place  of  Ormuzd  as 
first  of  the  seven  Amshaspancls,  which  referred  to  the 
Pleiades.  Like  Eros,  Serosh  was  considered  as  the 
framer  of  the  world.  Again,  as  Serosh-Sraosha  was 
connected  with  the  celestial  watchers,  and  thus  with 
the  Pleiades,  being  therefore  opposed  by  the  ideal  hero 
in  the  opposite  constellations  of  Scorpio  or  the  Ser- 
pent, the  adversary  of  Eros  is  the  serpent-deity  Ophio- 
neus.  Eros  must  therefore  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
ideal  heroes  of  light,  who  were  connected  with  the 
constellation  of  the  spring-equinox,  originally  with 
Taurus  and  the  Pleiades,  and  opposed  by  serpent- 
deities.  Eros  was  contrasted  to  Ophioneus  as  Ormuzd 
was    to    Ahriman,    Indra    to    Ahi,    Osiris    to    Typhon, 


62  PYTHAGORAS   AND   THE    EAST. 

Dionysos  to  the  serpent-footed  Titans,  Apollos  to 
Python,  Buddha  to  Mara  (Naga),  Christ  to  Antichrist, 
the  satan,  devil,  or  old  serpent. 

The  localisation  of  these  Eastern  and  Western  sym- 
bols enables  us  to  assert  that  the  theogony  of  Phe- 
recydes,  and  therefore  also  of  Pythagoras,  was  inse- 
parably connected  with  astronomical  observations  of 
the  East.  It  is  certainly  not  only  the  myth  of 
Demeter  and  of  Dionysos,  the  Indian  Bacchus,  which 
can  be  proved  to  have  been  introduced  into  Greece 
from  without. 

The  Orphic  cosmogony,  which  is  mere  ancient  than 
Pythagoras  and  his  tutor,  confirms  our  explanation  of 
the  Greek  theogony  as  based  on  astronomical  obser- 
vations of  the  East,  and  on  the  symbolism  connected 
with  it.  Chronos,  the  fundamental  principle,  creates 
the  opposing  principles  of  light  and  darkness,  the 
asther  and  the  chaos,  from  which  Chronos  forms  a 
silver  egg,  from  which  again  issues  forth  the  enlighten- 
ing Phanes,  who  is  also  called  Eros  and  Metis,  that  is, 
Wisdom,  the  Greek  Sophia  and  the  Indian  Boclhi.  The 
Sophia  was  later  designated  as  daughter  of  Okeanos 
and  Thetis.  The  latter  already  Hesiodus  mentions  as 
the  first  consort  of  Zeus,  who  devoured  her,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Gsea  and  Uranos,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
birth  of  a  Divine  being.  Zeus  caused  Athene,  symbol 
of  the  morning  dawn,  to  issue  forth  from  his  head. 
The  statue  and  temple  of  Athene  were  turned  towards 
the  middle  dawn  of  the  equinoxes,1  a  trait  of  the  myth 
which  confirms  the  astronomical  character  of  the  ear- 
liest known  nature-symbols,  and  the  connection  of 
Greek  philosophy  with  Eastern  astronomy  and  sym- 
bolism. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  assume  that  already 
centuries  before  Pythagoras,  the  Initiated  among  the 
Greeks,  the  epopts,  were  taught  in  and   through  the 

1  Eraile  Burnouf,  La  Legende  Atheniennc. 


GREEK    MYSTERIES.  63 

mysteries  a  more  speculative  theology,  a  deeper  know- 
ledge or  gnosis,  to  which  the  so-called  Gnomons  re- 
ferred by  dark  sentences,  riddles,  or  proverbs.  From 
this  it  would  follow  that,  through  the  Mysteries,  secret 
doctrines  of  Oriental  priests  could  be  transmitted  to 
Greek  philosophers,  which  through  them  reached  the 
public.  All  Greeks  were  admitted  to  the  representa- 
tion of  the  mystic  symbols,  but  these  were  not  intended 
for  the  education  of  the  people,  and  not  explained  to 
them.  Moreover,  there  were  certain  ceremonies  to 
which  only  the  Initiated  were  admitted. 

Even  without  having  travelled  to  the  East,  Pytha- 
goras, the  contemporary  of  Buddha,  could  have,  and  it 
will  become  more  and  more  probable  that  he  had,  a 
knowledge  of  Eastern  wisdom. 

The  Transmigration  of  Souls. 

The  connection  of  the  Pythagorean  doctrine  about 
the  transmigration  of  souls  with  the  Dionysian  Myth 
confirms  in  the  most  absolute  manner  the  direct  con- 
nection between  Greek  philosophy  and  Eastern  astro- 
nomical symbolism.  Pythagoras  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  who  taught  this  doctrine  in  Greece,  the  first 
traces  of  which  occur  among  the  Brahmans  and  Bud- 
dhists. According  to  the  Buddhistic  '  Tradition  from 
beyond,'  the  Bodhi,  or  Wisdom  from  above,  was  per- 
sonified by  angels  and  by  men,  and  the  spiritual  power 
or  Maya,  the  Brahm,  was  also  called  the  Word,  or  the 
Holy  Spirit.  From  time  to  time  an  Angel  is  designated 
in  his  turn  to  be  born  in  the  flesh,  and  to  teach  as  the 
enlightened  man,  as  Buddha  and  as  Saviour  of  the 
World,  the  wisdom  which  he  has  brought  from  the 
upper  and  spiritual  to  the  lower  and  material  world. 
This  incarnate  Angel-Messiah,  after  having  fulfilled  his 
mission,  returns  to  the  upper  spheres,  his  transforma- 
tions, his  deaths  and  births,  his  change  of  body,  what 


64  TYTHAGORAS   AND   THE   EAST. 

the  Greeks  called  'meteusomatosis,'  have  come  to  an  end 
for  him,  and  he  enters  the  locality,  the  characteristic 
feature  of  which  is  Nirvana  or  destruction,  that  is,  the 
annihilation  of  matter.  This  last  resting-place  of  the 
spirit,  where  the  harvest  takes  place,  is  the  abode  of  the 
spirits  perfected  before  him,  and  also  the  dwelling-place  of 
the  self-existent  deity,  Isvara-Deva.  Nirvana  is  the  sun. 
The  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  of  the  Angel-Messiah 
or  Buddha,  his  birth  in  the  flesh  as  the  last  of  a  series 
of  births,  was  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's 
transmigrations,  and  thus  with  a  concatenation  of 
bodily  existences.  Each  of  these  formed  a  new  prison 
for  the  soul,  which  was  held  to  be  of  heavenly,  of 
immaterial,  of  spiritual  origin.  According  to  Egyptian 
conception  the  soul  had  to  migrate  from  the  lowest 
animal  to  the  highest,  and  thus  had  to  become  em- 
bodied by  men  as  well  as  by  higher  beings  of  other 
stars.  The  graduated  scale  of  the  soul's  transformations 
was  by  the  Egyptians  connected  with  the  Phoenix- 
period.  The  Phoenix-bird  or  Phenno  is  by  Herodotus 
described  as  most  like  an  eagle,  and  every  500  years, 
as  he  was  told,  the  young  bird  buried  the  old  bird  at 
Heliopolis.  At  Heliopolis  was  the  Mnevis  or  black  Bull 
with  the  white  sign  of  an  eagle  (Phenno)  on  its  back. 
This  Bull  with  the  mark  of  the  Phoenix  can  be  proved 
to  have  referred  to  the  celestial  Bull,  to  the  constel- 
lation of  Taurus,  which  in  the  East  rises  on  the  horizon 
as  '  the  living  Apis,'  and  sets  in  the  West  as  'dead  Apis' 
or  '  Bull  of  the  West.'  The  places  on  the  horizon  which 
are  marked  by  the  rising  and  setting  Taurus,  like  those 
marked  by  the  new  moon  and  the  full  moon,  and  which 
were  called  '  the  two  eyes '  of  the  moon-god  Thot,  were 
held  to  be  '  the  two  heavenly  gates,'  between  which  the 
migrations  of  the  soul  were  conceived  to  take  place 
according  to  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  So  also  Osiris, 
originally  the  God  in  the  Pleiades,  had  to  migrate 
through  the  fourteen  moon-stations  of  the  lower  sphere 


IDEAL    HEROES    OF    LIGHT.  05 

before  he  could  rise  again  in  the  East  with  the  Pleiades 
in  Taurus  as  the  God  in  the  Pleiades,  in  order  to  re- 
commence his  rule  in  the  fourteen  moon-stations  of  the 
upper  hemisphere. 

The  connection  of  the  Pythagorean  doctrine  about 
the  transmigrations  of  the  soul  with  Dionysian  or 
Bacchic  rites  is  generally  acknowledged,  and  is  as 
certain  as  the  connection  of  the  Dionysos  Myth  with 
that  of  Osiris.  These  myths  must  be  connected  with 
the  East  and  astronomically  interpreted,  if  the  locali- 
sation of  these  and  similar  nature-symbols  has  been 
established.  Assuming  this,  it  follows  that  the  con- 
nection of  Pythagorean  conceptions  with  provable 
astronomical  observations  and  symbols  of  the  East  can 
no  longer  be  doubted. 

Among  the  ideal  heroes  of  light  which,  like  Osiris 
and  Dionysos,  were  connected  with  the  spring-equinoc- 
tial constellation,  and  were  opposed  by  ideal  heroes  of 
darkness  inhabiting  the  constellation  of  the  autumn- 
equinox,  was  also  Buddha,  the  contemporary  of  Pytha- 
goras. Because  Buddha  was  symbolised  by  the  sun, 
he  was  represented  as  Lamb,  referring  to  the  spring- 
equinoctial  sign  of  Aries  in  his  time,  which  rose  on  the 
horizon  at  his  birth.  Even  the  expectation  of  the 
coming  Buddha  was  connected  with  this  Eastern  astro- 
nomical symbolism.  The  expectation  of  his  birth  on 
Christmas-day,  and  at  midnight,  is  connected  with  a 
symbolism  which  is  much  more  ancient  than  the  time 
of  Gautama-Buddha. 

The  Goddess  Hestia. 

We  saw  that  the  creator  of  fire,  as  later  of  sun, 
moon,  and  earth,  that  Zeus-Chronos  throned  in  the 
Pleiades  according  to  the  theogony  of  the  tutor  of 
Pythagoras,  and  that  according  to  Indian  tradition  the 
Matarisvan,    the    messenger    of  Indra,   sent    from    the 


66  PYTHAGORAS  AND   THE    EAST. 

Matarii  or  Pleiades  to  the  earth,  that  Agni,  whose 
secret  name  was  Matarisvan,  was  held  to  have  brought 
the  fire  and  the  fire-sticks  to  the  earth.  With  these 
Oriental  conceptions  of  Pherecydes  the  statement  may 
be  connected,  that  the  Pythagoreans  placed  the  fire- 
goddess  Hestia  in  the  centre  of  the  universe.  We  may 
assume  that  Pythagoras  knew  for  what  reason  the  sun 
had  taken  the  place  of  fire  as  symbol  of  the  Divinity. 
Pythagoras  could  regard  the  sun  as  the  centre,  though 
not  of  the  universe,  yet  of  the  solar  system,  with  which 
he  seems  to  have  been  acquainted.  This  hypothesis  is 
confirmed  indirectly  by  the  place  which  the  Pythago- 
reans seem  to  have  assigned  to  the  earth  as  to  the 
second  moon,  perhaps  because  the  moon  accompanies 
the  earth  in  its  rotation  round  the  sun,  both  receiving 
their  light  from  the  latter. 

Pythagoras  could  assign  to  the  sun  the  central 
position  in  the  solar  system,  without  giving  up  the 
Oriental  connection  of  the  fire  with  the  Pleiades,  the 
latter  as  the  throne  of  the  God  by  whom  fire  had 
been  sent.  From  this  the  conception  would  arise  of 
the  Pleiades,  or  a  star  in  this  constellation,  as  the  throne 
of  Hestia  and  as  centre  of  the  universe.  It  is  remark- 
able that,  according  to  the  calculations  of  the  astro- 
nomer Maedler,  the  earth's  sun  appears  to  rotate  round 
a  star  in  the  Pleiades.  More  important  still  is  it  for 
our  purpose,  that  according  to  statements  made  by 
Cicero  and  Plutarch  about  astronomical  conceptions  of 
some  Pythagoreans,  especially  of  Aristarchos  from 
Samos,  who  flourished  from  about  B.C.  280  to  264, 
Copernicus,  led  by  these  ideas,  as  he  himself  seems  to 
imply,  separated  the  equinoctial  points  from  the  solar 
path,  and  thus  may  be  said  to  have  re-established  the 
most  ancient  and  absolutely  exact  year  of  the  East, 
Avhich  was  regulated  by  fixed  stars.1 

1  Die   Pljaden  und  der    Thierkreis;  comp.    Foerster,    wisscmchaftliehe 
Vorlesungen. 


DUALISM    OF   TRADITION.  67 

Pythagoras  and  the  Dorians. 

A  connection  can  be  rendered  probable  between  the 
ethnic  dualism  of  Iranians  and  Indians  on  the  one  side 
and  that  of  the  Sumir  and  Akkad  in  Mesopotamia, 
as  well  as  with  the  still  much  disputed  dualism  of 
Ionians  and  Dorians  in  Greece.  Here  it  must  suffice  to 
point  out  that  the  Iranians,  as  well  as  the  Akkad  and 
the  Ionians,  wrote  from  right  to  left,  like  all  '  Semitic ' 
people,  and  that  the  Veclic  Indians,  probably  also  the 
ancient  Egyptians  before  they  became  '  semitised,'  and 
certainly  the  Dorians,  wrote  from  left  to  right.  From 
this  it  becomes  probable  that  the  combination  of 
these  two  modes  of  writing  in  alternate  lines,  the 
so-called  Boustrophedon-form,  points  to  a  transition 
period.1 

We  purpose  to  substantiate  the  hypothesis  that  the 
Ionians  and  Dorians,  come  from  the  East  at  different 
times,  introduced  two  independent  philosophical  sys- 
tems, a  double  Oriental  tradition. 

According  to  Clement  of  Alexandria,  the  Italic 
school  of  philosophy  founded  by  Pythagoras  had  been 
entirely  different  from  the  Ionic  school  of  Thales.  Yet 
he  states  that  both  doctrinal  systems  originated  in 
Phoenicia.  According  to  our  interpretation  of  what  is 
called  Semitic,  this  can  be  explained  by  the  assumption 
that  both  traditions  had  once  been  introduced  into 
Phoenicia,  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  which  before  the 
Japhetic  immigration  was  inhabited  chiefly  if  not  ex- 
clusively by  Hamites. 

By  a  geographic  and  an  ethnic  interpretation  of  the 
genealogical  names  in  the  10th  chapter  of  Genesis,  the 
Hamites  can  be  traced  from  the  lowlands  of  the  Oxus 
and  Indus  to  the  Nile,  the  Jordan,  and  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris.  So  likewise  the  Japhetites  can  be  traced 
by  the  highland  of  Iran  to  the  south  of  the  Caspian, 

1  Die  Plejaden  und  der  Thierkreis,  39G-400. 


68  PYTHAGORAS   AND    THE    EAST. 

from  whence  they  conquered  Mesopotamia,  according 
to  Berosus  in  B.C.  2458.  This  year  is  implied  in 
Genesis  to  have  been  that  of  the  birth  of  Shem,  which 
took  place  98  years  after  5th e  Flood,  the  era  of  which 
commenced  in  B.C.  2360  according  to  Censorinus. 
These  Japhetites  or  Iranians  were  called,  in  their  own 
or  a  cognate  language,  Casdim,  or  conquerors,  as  proved 
by  the  language  of  Cuneiform  Inscriptions.  InUr- 
Casdim  the  ancestors  of  Abraham  were  born.  Like 
all  the  Hamites  who  inhabited  Mesopotamia  and  other 
countries  of  the  West,  the  Hebrews  were  subjugated  by 
the  Japhetic  conquerors,  and  these  combinations  of 
Japhetites  and  Hamites,  ever  since  the  year  of  Shem's 
birth,  is  in  Genesis  narrated  as  a  family  history  and 
referred  to  in  the  genealogies  of  Shem.1 

Clement  further  states,  that  according  to  the  opinion 
of  most  people  Pythagoras  was  a  barbarian,  a  word 
which  seems  to  have  been  formed  after  the  Indian 
'varvara,'  and  thus  would  designate  a  black-skinned 
man  with  woolly  hair.2  If  a  barbarian  or  non-Aryan, 
Pythagoras  was  a  Hamite,  a  word  formed  after  '  cham ' 
or  '  kem,'  which  in  Egyptian  means  '  black.'  The  Hamites 
of  Genesis  are  cognate  with  the  Homeric  '  Ethiopians 
from  the  East,'  and  these  have  migrated  from  India  to 
the  West  according  to  the  ethnic  scheme  just  referred 
to.  Accordingly,  the  barbarian  descent  of  Pythagoras 
would  connect  him  with  India,  and  his  acquaintance 
with  the  Indian  Bodhi  or  Wisdom  would  become 
increasingly  probable,  whether  he  met  his  contem- 
porary Gautama-Buddha  or  not.  The  probability  has 
been  pointed  out,  that  the  ancestors  of  Pythagoras,  of 
Tyrrhenian  descent,  migrated  from  Plilius  in  the  Pelo- 
ponnese  to  the  Ionic  Samos.3     In   so  far  the  Hamitic 

1  Gen.  xi.  28;  comp.    The   Chronologij  of  the  Bible,   and  T.   G.  Miiller, 
Die  Semit.en  in  ihrem  Verhiiltnks  zu  Japhetiten  unci  Hamiten. 

2  Contrasted  to  the  varvara  was  the  pulaMta,  the  white-skinned  man 
with  smooth  and  reddish  hair.   'Varna  '  means  '  caste  '  and  '  colour '  in  Sanscrit. 

s  Zeller,  I.e. 


ORACLES    OF    DODONA    AND    DELPHI.  69 

descent  of  Pythagoras  would  thus  be  confirmed,  as  the 
Tyrrhenians  or  Tursi  were  a  cognate  race  with  the 
Etruscans,  the  majority  of  which  was  certainly  non- 
Aryan,  Turian,  or  Hamitic.1 

From  the  early  combination  of  Ionic  and  Doric 
elements,  which  we  distinguish  as  Japhetic-Iranic  and 
Hamitic-Indian,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  undeniable 
tribal  distinctions  in  Greece  were  at  all  times  of  secon- 
dary importance,  and  that  they  were  not  influential  in 
moulding  the  forms  of  Greek  thought  and  the  Greek 
institutions.  All  critics  agree  that  in  the  tendency  of 
the  life  of  Pythagoras  the  non-Homeric  or  Doric  spirit 
is  clearly  distinguishable.  The  influence  of  the  Ionic 
conceptions  about  nature,  and  of  the  Ionic  language  on 
Pythagoras  can  be  sufficiently  explained  by  the  con- 
nection of  both  tribes.  It  cannot  be  a  mere  chance, 
and  it  may  be  designated  as  a  logical  consequence  of 
the  presumable  ethnic  dualism  in  Greece,  that  Homer 
represented  the  Ionic,  Pythagoras  the  Doric  tradition, 
and  that  the  oracle  at  Dodona  was  the  organ  of  the  one, 
that  of  Delphi,  with  its  consecrations,  of  the  other. 

4  The  belief  in  oracles  commences  before  Homer,  is 
mighty  before  Solon,  and  especially  in  the  Delphic 
sanctuary  of  Apollos  it  united  the  one  with  the  other, 
even  with  barbarians.  It  survives  Socrates  and  Demos- 
thenes, and  dies  out  at  the  end  of  the  Eoman  republic, 
in  order  to  gain  an  artificial  and  unreal  life  under 
Hadrian  and  the  Antonines ;  it  is  only  then  that  the 
oracles  become  silent  for  ever.  The  consecrations  and 
purifications  form  the  connecting  link  between  Delphi 
and  the  Orphics.  Orpheus,  Musaeus,  Linus,  as  already 
Aristotle  clearly  says,  are  mythical  names,  but  names 
for  a  real  old  Thrakian  doctrine  about  the  Gods,  the 
oracles  and  hymns  of  which  Demokritos,  the  contem- 
porary and  instrument  of  Pisistratos,  collected  and  falsi- 

1  Die  Plejaden  unci  cler  Thierkreis,  394. 


70  PYTHAGORAS   AND   THE    EAST. 

fied  by  insertions.  At  that  time  the  Orphics  were  a 
kind  of  fakirs,  wandering  jugglers  and  enchanters.  But 
it  belonged  to  the  political  system  of  the  ancient  ruling 
houses  to  bring  back  to  their  accustomed  value  every- 
thing that  was  priestly  and  ritualistic — consecrations, 
oracles,  and  ceremonies.  To  this  tendency  Homer's 
consciousness  of  God  is  directly  opposed.' * 

According  to  statements  made  by  Herodotus,  who 
first  transmits  the  names  of  the  Hias  and  the  Odyssey, 
Homer  the  Ionian  is  said  to  have  nourished  about 
B.C.  850,  therefore  perhaps  not  more  than  two  centuries 
before  the  birth  of  Pythagoras.  A  much  earlier  date 
of  Homer,  or  of  the  authors  of  the  Homeric  Poems  trans- 
mitted to  us,  is  rendered  improbable  above  all  by  the 
circumstance  that  in  these  poems  so  little  notice  is 
taken  of  Ionic  Athens.  This  is  easily  explained  if  we 
assume  that  in  the  form  transmitted  to  us  they  were 
composed  after  the  Doric  conquest  of  the  Peloponnese, 
which  may  have  taken  place  long  before  the  traditional 
date  B.C.  1104,  an  hypothesis  which  seems  to  be  con- 
firmed by  the  excavations  of  Schliemann.  In  this  sup- 
position the  insertions  in  favour  of  the  Athenians  would 
be  explained,  which  may  have  originated  in  the  ad- 
dresses of  the  Ehapsodi  held  at  Athens.  They  were 
even  attributed  to  Solon  and  to  Pisistratos,  and  they 
have  certainly  not  been  eradicated  in  the  first  written 
records  of  the  songs  which  the  latter  caused  to  be 
made.  That  Lycurgus  brought  them  from  Ionia  to 
Sparta  is  a  non-proven  assertion. 

The  more  the  Ionian  Homer  can  be  connected  with 
the  Japhetic-Iranian  tradition,  the  more  certain  will 
become  the  descent  of  Pythagoras  from  the  Dorians, 
and  the  connection  of  the  latter  with  Hamitic-Indian 
tradition. 

Like  the  Iranian  hero  Thraetona,  like  the  Iranian 

1  Bunsen,  God  in  History,  German  edition,    ii.   281,  286,  287;  comp. 
Gerland,  Homerische  Sag  en. 


IONIANS   AS   JAPHETITES    AND    IRANIANS.  71 

Sethite  Lamech,  and  like  Noah  the  Hebrew,  Hellen  the 
son  of  Deucalion  has  three  sons  : — 


Thraetona  :  Airya, 

Tnirya, 

Sairma ; 

Lamech  :       Jabal, 

Jubal, 

Thubal-Cain ; 

Noah :            Japhet, 

Ham, 

Sliem  ; 

Hellen  :         JEolus, 

Dorus, 

Xuthus. 

In  the  10th  chapter  of  Genesis  the  descendants  of 
Japhet,  called  '  the  elder  '  in  the  text,  are  first  men- 
tioned, those  of  Shem  last ;  a  circumstance  which  in- 
directly confirms  our  interpretation  of  the  Shemites  as 
a  combination  of  Japhetites  and  Hamites.  In  the  order 
enumerated  above,  the  -iEolians,  that  is  the  original 
Ionians,  are  shown  to  be  identical  with  the  Japhetites, 
as  the  Dorians  with  the  Hamites. 

This  is  confirmed  in  the  first  place  by  the  fact  that 
the  name  Ionian,  or  Taon,  cannot  be  separated  from  the 
name  Javan,  by  which  name  the  Hebrews  have  at  all 
times  until  now  designated  the  Greeks.  Also  in  Cunei- 
form Inscriptions  of  the  eighth  century,  the  name 
Javnan  or  Junan  occurs  as  designation  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Cyprus.  According  to  the  10th  chapter  of  Genesis, 
Javan  is  a  son  of  Japhet,  and  therefore  belongs  to  the 
Iranian  tribe,  like  Madai  or  the  Medes,  who  as  Casdim, 
later  Chaldeans,  belonging  to  the  family  of  the  Akkad, 
conquered  Mesopotamia.  The  transition  of  the  name 
Javan  to  that  of  Ionians,  stands  in  connection  with  the 
worship  of  Io  the  moon,  which  was  gradually  set  aside 
by  the  Dorians.  The  original  name  of  Ionia  was  Achsea, 
or  Achaia,  the  land  of  the  Achaians  or  Akkaians,  the 
Akkaiusha  of  Egyptian  monuments  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  This  is  to  be  explained  by  the  cognate  rela- 
tions between  the  Javan  and  the  Akkad  of  Mesopotamia. 
We  may  therefore  connect  the  name  of  the  Greek 
Achaeans,  or  Akkaians,  with  the  name  of  the  Akkadians, 
or  Akkad,  of  Mesopotamia.  The  name  given  to  the 
Greeks  in  the  Homeric  Poems  is  thus  traced  to  the 
Iranian    and    Median    Casdim,   later    Chalda3ans,    who 


72  PYTHAGORAS   AND   THE    EAST. 

were  cognate  with  the  Akkad  of  Cuneiform  Inscriptions, 
and  who  subjugated  in  the  year  B.C.  2458  the  Sumir, 
the  descendants  of  the  builders  of  Babylon.1 

Similar  to  the  three  tribes  of  Cretian  Dorians,  there 
were  three  tribes  among  the  Spartans,  it  is  said  since 
Lycurgus,  which,  however,  seem  to  have  existed  earlier, 
at  least  after  the  conquest  of  the  Peloponnese,  since  we 
meet  them  everywhere  among  the  Dorians.  Probably 
the  first  tribe  among  the  Spartans  consisted  exclusively 
of  Dorians,  even  though  at  first  some  Achseans  may 
have  been  reckoned  to  them  for  the  sake  of  peace.  It 
is  said  that  Lycurgus  granted  to  some  Achseans  the  full 
rights  of  citizens,  but  that  later  they  lost  the  political 
privileges.  The  second  tribe,  of  the  Perioeki,  was  formed 
probably  by  subjugated  but  free  Achasans  or  Ionians, 
and  the  Helotes  consisted  of  serfs,  which  class  was 
added  by  the  Doric  conquests.  The  Thetes  of  earlier 
times,  who  for  wages  performed  agricultural  labours, 
were  probably  reckoned  to  the  Helotes.  The  state- 
ment transmitted  to  us,  may  therefore  be  regarded  as 

1  We  have  tried  to  render  probable  that  the  Oasdim  of  the  family  of  the 
Akkad  were  a  cognate  race  with  the  Hyksos,  and  also  with  the  Keta,  Ket, 
Seth  (Ishita-Isatu).  The  same  people  ruled  in  Mesopotamia  as  Medes  from 
2458  to  2334,  then  over  part  of  Egypt  as  the  twelfth  dynasty,  and  511  years 
as  Hyksos  over  the  whole  of  Egypt,  from  2074  to  1563  ;  finally,  after  a 
sojourn  of  twenty-nine  years  in  Arabia,  they  again  ruled  in  Mesopotamia  as 
the  'Arabian'  dynasty  of  Berosus,or  the  Canaanite  dynasty  of  the  Nabathaeans , 
from  1534  to  1289.  {The  Chronology  of  the  Bible.)  Probably,  already 
during  the  Median  dynasty,  the  Japhetic  Casdim  or  Oheta,  according  to  the 
10th  chapter  of  Genesis,  migrated  from  Mesopotamia  to  Asia  Minor,  the 
Black  Sea,  and  the  Lower  Danube,  to  Thrace.  Here  dwelt,  as  aborigines, 
the  Geta  (Keta),  who,  according  to  statements  of  Herodotus,  claimed  to  be 
descended  from  the  Medes,  thus  from  the  Median  Casdim,  or  Cheta,  according 
to  our  ethnic  scheme.  Accordingly,  the  first  immigrants  of  Greece,  the 
Pelasgians  (the  P'lishti,  or  Whites,  as  Hitzig  suggests),  but  in  combination 
with  non-Aryans,  or  Ilamites,  ma}r  have  come  from  Thrace,  and  they  may  have 
been  a  cognate  tribe  with  the  Celts,  who  in  divers  ramifications  spread  over 
Europe  and  Northern  Africa  as  mixed  white  and  black  tribes.  The  Celts  in 
Britain  were  certainly  a  mixed  race.  According  to  this  theory,  the  Casdim 
may  have  received  the  name  Chaldaeans  because,  as  Medes,  they  formed  a 
mixed  race.  In  Sanscrit  '  kala'  means  '  black,'  and  Herodotus  mentions  Indian 
Callatians  who  ate  their  fathers  (III.  38). 


IONIANS   AND    DORIANS    IN   THE    TROJAN    WAR.  73 

historical,  that  the  earliest  quarrels  took  place  between 
Doric  conquerors  and  subjugated  Ionians. 

The  hypothesis  that  in  the  Trojan  war  the  Dorians, 
though  not  unmixed,  as  Hellenes  were  opposed  to  the 
Ionians,  is  also  confirmed  by  a  few  personal  names 
which  can  be  ethnically  explained.  The  name  Dar- 
danos,  of  the  founder  of  the  royal  house  of  Troy,  from 
whom  the  legend  regards  the  Eomans  as  descended,  is 
formed  after  the  Aryan  '  tartan '  or  commander.  Dar- 
danos  is  first  named  as  chief  of  the  people  in  the 
north-east  of  the  Troas,  and  then  is  connected  with  the 
island  Samothrake,  the  Samos  of  Homer,  opposite  Troy, 
and  of  Pelasgian  (Ionic  ?)  origin.  The  island  was  the 
principal  seat  of  the  Kabirian  mysteries,  which  were 
almost  certainly  connected  with  those  of  the  Ionic 
Dodona.  The  name  Dodona  cannot  be  separated  from 
the  name  Dodanim,  of  the  son  of  Javan,  according  to 
Genesis,  and  brother  of  Elisha,  which  name  Josephus 
uses  for  the  designation  of  the  iEolians  or  Ionians. 
According  to  the  explanation  of  the  Targumim  and  the 
Talmud,  the  Dodanim  were  identical  with  the  Dar- 
danians,  whereby  the  connection  of  the  Trojans  with 
the  Ionians  is  confirmed,  which  latter  were  the  allies  of 
the  former  according  to  Herodotus. 

Again,  the  name  Erechtheus  or  Erechthonius,  is  also 
the  name  of  the  first  Athenian  king,  and  points  to 
Erech  in  Mesopotamia,  which  city  was  even  more  ancient 
than  Babylon.  The  name  of  the  Troic  Assarakos 
corresponds  with  the  Assyrian  Assarak  or  Serak,  a 
name  for  kings  and  gods.  The  name  Hos  must  be 
connected  with  the  divinity  Illinos,  and  the  latter  with 
Bel-Hea-Aos,  and  thus  with  the  third  name  of  the 
Assyrian  Trias,  whom  Damascius  calls  Aos.  Finally,  the 
name  Laomedon  literally  means  '  people  of  the  Medes,' 
and  thus  seems  to  point  to  the  Medes  of  Berosus, 
whose  capture  of  Babylon  in  the  year  of  Shem's  birth, 
B.C.  2458,  brought   about  the   ethnical  combination  of 


74  PYTHAGORAS   AND   THE   EAST. 

Japhetites  and  Hamites,  of  the  probable  ancestors  of 
Ionians  and  Dorians,  which  combination  we  call  Semi- 
tism. 

That  the  Trojans  were  a  cognate  race  with  the 
Ionians,  and  thus  with  the  Japhetites  of  Genesis,  the 
Iranians,  is  also  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  Phrygians 
whom  Attic  poets  and  Eoman  historians  identify  with 
the  Trojans,  are  pointed  out  by  Herodotus  as  a  people 
essentially  different  from  the  Indians,  and  next  to  the 
latter  as  the  more  numerous.  As  with  the  Trojans,  the 
Phrygians  were  cognate  with  the  Thrakians,  whom  the 
Ionians  called  Thraekoi,  with  which  the  names  Troas,  Tros, 
and  Teucri  might  have  been  connected.  The  Trojans 
and  Phrygians,  as  Ionians  or  Javan,  were  Japhetites, 
and  this  is  also  confirmed  by  the  connection  of  the 
Japhetic  Tiras  of  Genesis  with  Thrace,  according  to 
the  Targumim,  Josephus,  and  Jerome,  whilst  Strabo 
actually  designates  the  Thracians  as  Trojans  and  Pelas- 
gians.  It  has  thus  become  probable  at  least,  that  in 
the  Trojan  war  Indian  Dorians,  as  Hellenes,  opposed 
Iranic  Ionians  as  Trojans. 

If  the  Ionian  Homer  cannot  be  separated  from  the 
Japhetites  or  Iranians,  it  follows  that  the  name  Homer 
must  be  connected  with  the  Japhetic  Javan  (Ion),  who 
in  the  10th  chapter  of  Genesis  is  designated  as  fourth 
son  of  Gomer,  the  eldest  son  of  Japhet.  Accordingly, 
not  only  the  name  Homer,  but  also  that  of  the  Homerides 
of  Greece  and  of  the  family  of  singers  in  Arabia,  the 
Gomeridse,  would  point  to  Gomer,  the  tribal  father  of 
the  Japhetites.  Apollos  communicated  to  the  tribes  of 
seers  the  mysteries  of  Zeus  about  the  past  and  the 
future.  The  families  of  seers  were  probably  also  the 
families  of  singers.  The  family  of  singers,  or  more 
probably  the  corporation  or  caste  of  Initiated  in  the 
mysteries  of  Ionic  tradition  and  life,  the  guardians  of 
the  old  and  of  the  new  treasure  from  the  East,  the 
Homeridas  of  Chios,  will  have   to  be   connected  with 


THE    NAMES    OF    HOMER   AND    PYTHAGORAS.  75 

Homeric  songs,  as  with  the  Ionic-Iranian  tradition  on 
which  they  are  founded.  Also  in  Bactria  and  India 
there  were  generations  of  singers  ;  and  according  to  the 
most  ancient  tradition  of  the  East-Iranians  recorded  in 
the  Zendavesta,  the  God  of  light  communicates  his 
mysteries  to  some  men  through  his  Word,  later  through 
the  mediation  of  Serosh,  the  Angel-Messiah. 

Homeric  singers  probably  existed  long  before  the 
Trojan  war,  and  still  in  the  sixty-ninth  Olympiad,  at  the 
commencement  of  the  Persian  wars,  Kynaethos  is  said 
to  have  sung  Homeric  poems  in  Syracuse  and  other 
places,  the  written  record  of  which,  in  the  form  trans- 
mitted to  us,  might  possibly  not  have  taken  place  much 
before  this  time.  The  Homeridas  are  said  to  have  been 
proud  of  their  descent  from  Homer,  and  they  may  have 
connected,  though  not  publicly,  the  poet's  name  with 
the  representative  name  of  Gomer.  They  could  do  this 
even  without  giving  up  the  personality  of  the  one  poet. 
The  name  Homer  has  in  Greek  the  meaning  of  one  who 
rivets  or  unites  what  was  separate,  and  it  corresponds 
with  the  meaning  of  the  name  of  the  Rhapsodi. 

If  the  Ionic  Homer  can  be  regarded  as  representa- 
tive of  Ionic  and  therefore  Iranian  traditions  of  which 
the  Zendavesta  is  the  most  ancient  record,  the  connec- 
tion is  thereby  confirmed  of  the  Dorian  Pythagoras 
with  the  essentially  different  Indian,  though  mixed 
Iranian  tradition,  with  the  Wisdom  or  Bodhi,  which  his 
contemporary  Gautama-Buddha  promulgated.  Indeed, 
the  name  Pythagoras  appears  to  be  a  combination  of 
Put,  Bud,  Bod  or  Bodhi,  and  of  '  guru,'  which  word  in 
India  was  used  for  a  teacher  of  the  Veda ;  so  that  the 
name  Pythagoras  may  be  interpreted  '  teacher  of  the 
religion  of  Buddha.'  This  derivation  must  be  preferred  to 
the  combination  of  an  Indian  and  a  Greek  word,  of  Put 
and  agoraios,  one  belonging  to  the  market — an  epithet 
of  several  gods.  The  market  and  Wisdom  have  been 
strangely  connected  in  the  partly  late  composed  Book  of 


76  PYTHAGORAS   AND   THE   EAST. 

Proverbs  :  *  Wisdom  crieth  without,  she  uttereth  her 
voice  in  the  streets,  she  crieth  in  the  chief  place  of 
concourse,'  or,  rather,  '  in  the  market  place.'  * 

The  connection  of  Pythagoras  with  the  East,  and 
with  the  Indian-Iranian  Wisdom  or  Bodhi,  which  his 
contemporary  Buddha  promulgated,  if  proved,  is  of 
great  importance,  because  Josephus  compares  the  Essenic 
Therapeuts  of  Alexandria  with  the  Pythagoreans,  and 
because  Essenic  as  also  Pythagorean  doctrines  and 
rites  can  be  proved  to  point  back  to  Parsism  and 
Buddhism. 

1  Prov.  i.  20. 


77 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    ESSENES   AND    THE    EAST. 

Alexander,  Asoka,  and  the  Parthians,  as  pioneers  of  the  Essenes — The  three 
classes  of  the  Magi  and  of  the  Rabbis — Daniel  and  the  Magi  or  Chaldaeans 
— Probable  Essenic  origin  of  the  Massora  or  Gnosis  in  Israel,  and  its  in- 
troduction into  the  Septuagint. 

The  Bridge  between  East  and  West. 

In  a  remarkable  passage  Philo  connects  the  Essenic 
mode  of  life  with  that  of  the  ascetics  among  the  Magi 
and  among  the  Indians.  He  states  that  in  the  land  of 
the  barbarians  wise  men  are  '  authorities,  both  as  to 
words  and  actions,'  and  that  there  are  '  very  numerous 
companies  of  the  Magi,  who  investigating  the  works  of 
nature  for  the  purpose  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
truth,  do  at  their  leisure  become  initiated  themselves, 
and  initiate  others,  in  the  divine  virtues  by  very  clear 
explanations.  And  among  the  Indians  there  is  the 
class  of  the  gymnosophists  (or  '  naked  wise  men ')  who, 
in  addition  to  natural  philosophy,  take  great  pains  in 
the  study  of  moral  science  likewise,  and  thus  make  their 
whole  existence  a  sort  of  lesson  in  virtue.' l  These 
naked  wise  men  were  by  the  Indians  called  Vana- 
prasthas,  or  'inhabitants  of  woods,'  and  they  formed 
the  third  class  of  the  Brahmans,  the  members  of  which 
had  to  give  themselves  up  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
Deity,  till  purified  from  all  terrestrial  influences  they 

1  Philo,  Quod  omnis  jirobus,  11;  comp.  Clem.  Al.,  Strom,  i.  15;  some  of 
them  '  neither  inhabit  cities,  nor  have  roofs  over  them,  but  are  clothed  in 
the  bark  of  trees,  feed  on  nuts,  and  drink  water  in  their  hands.  Like  the 
Encratites,  they  know  not  marriage  nor  begetting  of  children.' 


78  THE    ESSENES   AND    THE    EAST. 

can  as  Sanyasi  return  to  the  aboriginal  source  of  exist- 
ence, the  condition  of  release  from  matter,  to  the  place 
where  matter  is  annihilated,  to  the  Nirvana  of  the 
Buddhists,  which  we  tried  to  identify  with  the  sun. 
This  passage  immediately  precedes  the  account  which 
Philo  gives  of  the  Essenes  in  Palestine  and  Syria,  which 
countries,  he  says,  'are  also  not  barren  of  exemplary 
wisdom  and  virtue,'  and  where  lives  that  portion  of  the 
Jews  whom  he  calls  Essai,  the  Essenes  of  Josephus,  whom 
he  mentions  by  the  side  of  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  as 
forming  the  third  party  in  Israel.  Thus  Philo  connects 
indirectly  the  Essenes  with  East-Asiatic  religions. 

This  connection  is  confirmed  by  the  austere  life  of 
the  Essenes,  resembling  the  asceticism  of  Brahmans, 
Jains,  and  Buddhists,  as  also  that  of  the  Magi.  It  be- 
comes probable  that  the  Essenes  introduced  Oriental 
doctrines  and  customs  into  Judaism,  since  Pythagorsean 
asceticism  and  doctrines  can  likewise  be  connected  with 
the  East,  and  especially  with  the  Indian  Wisdom  or 
Bodhi.  Ever  since  Alexander's  conquest  of  India, 
Eastern  science  could  easily  be  imported  into  the  West, 
and  already  three  centuries  earlier,  Psammetick  had 
opened  the  ports  of  Egypt  to  the  world.  The  '  Tradition 
from  beyond,'  or  the  Wisdom  from  above  which  Gautama- 
Buddha  promulgated,  became  patronised  by  the  great 
king  Asoka,  after  his  conversion,  probably  from  Jainism, 
in  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign.  In  the  eighteenth  year, 
about  B.C.  258,  he  assembled  a  Buddhist  council  at 
Patna,  and  settled  the  Southern  Canon.  He  sent  a 
message  to  the  general  assembly  of  Magadha,  preserved 
in  the  Bhabra  edict,  in  which  he  expresses  his  ;  respect 
and  favour  in  Buddha,  in  the  law,  and  in  the  assembly.' 
A  distinction  is  then  made  in  favour  of  the  binding, 
because  provable,  authority  of  the  words  spoken  by 
Buddha.  '  Whatsoever  (words)  have  been  spoken  by 
the  Divine  Buddha,  they  have  all  been  well  said,  and  in 
them  verily  I  declare  that  capability  of  proof  is  to  be 


ASOKA   AND   AKSAKES.  79 

discerned  ;  so  that  the  pure  law  (which  they  teach)  will 
be  of  long  duration.  These  things,  as  declared  by  the 
Divine  Buddha,  I  proclaim,  and  I  desire  them  to  be 
regarded  as  the  precepts  of  the  law.' !  It  would  have 
been  impossible  for  Asoka  to  have  addressed  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Buddhism  in  such  terms,  transmitted  to  us 
by  his  stone-cut  edicts,  if  authorised  records  of  Buddha's 
words  had  not  existed  in  his  time. 

In  the  same  year,  B.C.  250,  and  under  his  auspices, 
the  first  eighteen  Buddhist  missionaries  reached  China, 
'where  they  are  held  in  remembrance  to  the  present 
day,  their  images  occupying  a  conspicuous  place  in 
every  large  temple.'  The  board  for  foreign  missions, 
established  by  Asoka,  the  Dharma-Mahamatra,  'sent 
forth  to  all  surrounding  countries  enthusiastic  preachers 
.  .  .  supported  by  the  whole  weight  of  Asoka's  political 
and  diplomatic  influence.'2  Asoka's  son,  Mahinda, 
with  others,  went  to  "Ceylon  during  Tissa's  reign  in  that 
island  (250-230).  The  Society  for  the  propagation  of 
Buddhism  in  foreign  lands  must  have  imported  written 
records  of  the  words  of  Buddha.  This  assertion,  based 
on  the  fact  that  the  Bhabra  edict  of  Asoka  refers  to 
existing  records  of  words  of  Buddha,  is  confirmed  by 
the  reference  in  Chinese-Buddhist  writings  to  Buddha's 
exhortation  to  his  son  against  falsehood,  to  which  Sutra 
Asoka's  edict  referred,  in  B.C.  250. 

The  board  for  foreign  missions  in  India  must  have 
directed  its  special  attention  to  the  independent  Parthian 
kingdom.  The  same  was  established  by  Arsakes  in  the 
same  year  that  Asoka  established  his  foreign  missions, 
and  sent  the  first  missionaries  to  China.  The  Parthian 
kingdom  soon  connected  the  Indus  with  the  Euphrates, 
and  thus  formed  an  uninterrupted  bridge  from  East  to 

1  Professor  Wilson's  translation;  see  Thomas,  I.  c.  53  ;  corap.  Rhys 
Davids,  224.  r        J 

2  Eitel,  Buddhism,  second  edition,  pp.  19,  20.  According  to  Rhys 
Davids,  the  Dharnia-Mahaniatra  was  the  office  of  the  chief  minister  of  re- 
ligion;  I.e.  228. 


80  THE   ESSENES   AND   THE    EAST. 

West  for  nearly  500  years.  Asoka's  missionary  board 
had  special  reasons  for  sending  its  emissaries  to  the 
Parthians,  if  Gautama  or  Sakya-Buddha  was  a  descen- 
dant from  the  kings  of  the  Sakas.  Like  the  name  Asoka, 
or  Chasoka,  the  name  Arsakes,  which  is  Asak  without 
the  liquid  r,  may  be  translated  '  the  strong  one,'  the 
holder,  possessor,  ruler,  or  conqueror,  like  the  Hebrew 
Chasad  and  the  title  Darius,  which,  according  to  Hesy- 
chius,  meant  with  the  Persians  '  the  wise,'  and  with  the 
Phrygians  '  the  holder.'  The  name  Saka  was  still  known 
as  a  royal  title  in  India  200  years  after  Asoka.  It  is 
highly  probable,  if  not  certain,  that,  like  the  cognate 
Sakas,  the  Parthians  were  in  part  Aryans  and  Iranians. 
This  is  important,  since  the  Buddhistic  reform  was  based 
on  Zoroastrian  doctrines. 

The  independent  Parthian  kingdom  included  the 
land  on  the  lower  Euphrates,  or  Chaldgea  proper,  of 
which  the  Median  Casdim  or  conquerors  had  become 
possessed  in  the  year  B.C.  2458.  Here,  in  the  land  of 
Abraham's  birth,  and  where  Daniel  had  been  set  over 
the  Magi,  Cyrus  the  servant  of  Ormuzd,  and  whom  a 
prophet  in  Israel  called  the  Anointed  or  the  Messiah  of 
God,  permitted  the  Israelites  to  return  to  the  land  pro- 
mised to  their  fathers,  and  which  was  originally  bordered 
by  the  Euphrates  and  the  Nile.  In  this  land  of  the 
Medes  and  Magi,  whom  Cyrus  acknowledged  in  their 
position,  Arsakes  and  his  successors  were  surrounded 
by  a  senate  of  Magi.  The  Parthians  were,  there- 
fore, in  a  more  or  less  direct  connection  with  India 
and  with  Syria  about  a  hundred  years  before  the  rise  of 
the  Maccabees  and  the  organised  body  of  Assida3ans,  or 
Chassidim,  the  pious  ones  or  saints.  With  these  the 
Essenes  have  by  many  authorities  been  identified,  whose 
existence  as  an  order  is  first  testified  in  the  year  B.C.  148. 
The  Chassidim,  or  saints,  are  already  mentioned  in  a 
Psalm  written  before  the  Captivity,  and  the  passage  is 
cited  by  the  Maccabees,  whose  name  lias  been  lately 


THE    KELIGIOtf    OF    HUMANITY.  81 

derived   from  Chabah,   *  to   extinguish,'  a  very  appro- 
priate title  for  the  destroyers  of  idolatry.1 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  introduction  of  an  Indian 
element  among  the  Medes  or  West-Iranians,  whose 
priests  were  called  Magi,  which  caused  the  separation 
of  them  from  their  Eastern  brethren.  Though  the 
Magi  were  worshippers  of  Ormuzd,  the  god  of  light, 
and  though  they  preserved  the  ancient  dualistic  sym- 
bolism of  light  and  darkness,  they  introduced  an  austere 
life  among  the  Iranians  of  the  West  which  was  quite 
contrary  to  the  doctrines  and  customs  of  the  Eastern 
Iranians.  This  asceticism,  so  similar  to  that  of  the 
Brahmans  and  Buddhists,  led  to  the  separation  of  nu- 
merous individuals,  if  not  of  a  whole  tribe,  from  the 
rest  of  the  community ;  they  became  ascetics  for  life. 
The  similar  and  pre-Mosaic  institution  of  the  Nazarite 
or  Nazirite  for  life  among  the  Israelites,  probably  came 
to  them  through  the  Magi,  who  may  have  existed 
among  the  Medes  or  Chaldaeans  already  when  they  con- 
quered Mesopotamia,  centuries  before  the  birth  of 
Abraham. 

The  spirit  in  which  Asoka,  the  Constantine  of 
Buddhism,  desired  his  religious  faith  to  be  disseminated 
in  India  and  in  foreign  countries  is  akin  to  the  spirit  of 
Him  who,  about  250  years  later,  instituted  an  apostolic 
propagation-society  in  Zion.  The  edicts  of  Asoka,  cut 
in  stones,  are  the  earliest  records  of  that  universal  or 
catholic  religion  of  humanity  which  is  wrongly  as- 
sumed to  have  sprung  up  so  suddenly  and  unconnect- 
edly  in  the  West.  Unlike  other  primitive  religions, 
even    that    of    Moses,    Buddhism    propagated    in    pre- 

1  Ps.  lxxix.  2,  3  ;  comp.  cxxxii.  9  ;  Dan.  viii.  13;  Mai.  iii.  13  ;  1  Mace, 
vii.  17.  Talm.  Beracli.  i.  by  the  Wassikim  or  the  pious  ones  probably  refers 
to  the  Ohassidim  as  the  Essenes.  Dr.  Ourtiss,  of  Leipzig,  derives  the 
Machabee  of  Jerome  from  Chabah.  The  probable  connection  of  Mahomed  as 
Hanyf  or  Sabean  with  the  disciples  of  John,  and  thus  with  the  Essenes,  sug- 
gests a  possible  original  reference  of  the  Ohaaba  at  Mekka  to  the  extinguish- 
ing of  idolatry  by  Mahomed. 

G 


82  THE    ESSENES   AND   THE   EAST. 

Christian  times  more  than  a  tribal  morality  connected 
with  ritualism  and  a  national  deity.  Buddhism  was, 
certainly  in  the  time  of  Asoka,  not  a  religion  of  race, 
but  a  religion  appealing  to  the  conscience,  a  religion  of 
'  self-evidencing  authority,'  the  religion  of  humanity. 
The  enthusiasm  with  which  it  was  propagated  was 
tempered  by  a  sincere  regard  for  the  religions  of  other 
nations.  One  of  the  rock-cut  edicts  dated  the  twelfth 
year  of  Asoka's  reign  has  been  deciphered  as  follows : * 
1  The  beloved  of  the  gods,  King  Eyadasi,  honours  all 
forms  of  religious  faith,  and  no  reviling  or  injury  of 
that  of  others.  Let  the  reverence  be  shown  in  such  and 
such  a  manner  as  is  suited  to  the  difference  of  belief ;  .  .  . 
for  he  who  in  some  way  honours  his  own  religion  and 
reviles  that  of  others,  saying :  having  extended  to  all 
our  own  belief,  let  us  make  it  famous,  he  who  does 
this,  his  conduct  cannot  be  right.'  The  edict  goes  on 
to  say :  '  and  as  this  is  the  object  of  all  religions,  with 
a  view  to  its  dissemination,  superintendents  of  moral 
duty  '  .  .  .  are  appointed. 

Although  Asoka's  grandfather,  the  adventurer  of 
low  birth,  Tchandragupta,  the  Greek  Sandracottos, 
who  met  Alexander  on  the  banks  of  the  Hyphasis  in 
B.C.  325,  had  about  ten  years  later  driven  the  Greeks 
out  of  India,  defeating  Seleukos,  the  ruler  of  the  Indus 
provinces,2  yet  Alexander's  religious  policy  was  quite 
in  harmony  with  the  enlightened  spirit  of  Asoka.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  founder  of  Alexandria,  of  the 
intended  metropolis  of  the  Greek  western  empire,  met 
the  appeal  of  Aristotle,  to  treat  the  Greeks  as  freemen 
and  the  Orientalists  as  slaves,  by  the  declaration,  that 
he  regarded  it  as  his  '  divine  mission,  to  unite  and 
reconcile  the  world.'  It  has  been  well  said,  that 
Alexander  was  not  simply  a  Greek,  and  that  he  must 
not  be  judged  by  a  Greek  standard.     '  The  Orientalism 

1  Edward  Thomas,  Jainism,  or  the  Early  Faith  of  Asoka,  p.  45. 
3  Rhys-Davids,  Buddhism,  220. 


PYTHAGOREAN    RECORDS.  83 

which  was  to  his  followers  a  scandal,  formed  an  essen- 
tial part  of  his  principles,  and  not  the  result  of  caprice 
or  vanity.  He  approached  the  idea  of  a  universal 
monarchy  from  the  side  of  Greece,  but  his  final  object 
was  to  establish  something  higher  than  the  paramount 
supremacy  of  one  people.  His  purpose  was  to  combine 
and  equalise,  not  to  annihilate  ;  to  wed  the  East  and  the 
West  in  a  just  union.' 1 

Alexander  found  in  Greek  literature  a  deposit  of 
Eastern  science.      We  have  no  reason  to  doubt  the 
early  record  of  the  doctrines  which  Pythagoras  taught 
but  probably  did  not  record  himself,  nor  is  it  possible 
to  reject  the  well-attested  tradition,  that  Philolaus,  a 
Pythagorean  philosopher  in  the  time  of  Socrates  (b.c. 
469-399),  composed  a  work  in  three  books  containing 
doctrines  of  Pythagoras.     This  work  Plato  is  said  to 
have  either  bought  himself  from  relatives  of  the  philo- 
sopher in  Sicily,   or  through  Dion  of  Syracuse,  who 
bought  it  from  Philolaus.     The  contents  of  the  greater 
part  of  Plato's  '  Timeus  '  are  said  to  have  been  derived 
from  this  Pythagorean  source,  and  the  composition  of 
the  former  probably  took  place  within  60  to  80  years 
after  the  death  of  Pythagoras.     Little  more  than  200 
years  later,  about  B.C.  300,  Megasthenes  composed   a 
work   on  India  after  his   stay  in  that  country,   occa- 
sioned by  Seleucus-Mcator  having  sent  him  as  ambas- 
sador to  Asoka's  grandfather,  Sandracottos.     Although 
the    original   Pythagorean    schools    cannot    be    traced 
beyond  the  commencement  of  the  fourth  century  B.C., 
it  cannot  be   asserted  that  the  Pythagorean  tradition 
had  at  any  time  died  out.     Soon  after  the  beginning  of 
the  last  pre-Christian  century  a  revival  of  it  took  place, 
in    a   probably  enlarged    and    certainly  more    Eastern 
garb,   under  the    name    of   Neo-Pythagoreanism,   the 
first    traces    of  which    seem    to    point    to   Alexandria, 
though   Cicero  strove  to    connect  Eoman  with  Pytha- 

1    Westcott,  in  Smith's  Diet  of  the  Bible :  'Alexander.' 
a  2 


84  THE   ESSENES   A^D   THE   EAST. 

gorsean  science.  In  and  near  the  city  where  the  new 
Pythagorasanism  probably  originated,  and  about  half  a 
century  earlier,  the  settlement  of  Therapeuts  near 
Alexandria  is  attested.  Again,  it  is  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, who  first  mentions  Buddha  by  name,  whose 
doctrines  have  provably  influenced  those  of  the  Thera- 
peuts. It  was  not  Hellenism,  but  Orientalism,  which 
assimilated  the  Neo-Pythagorasan  doctrines  with  those 
earlier  established  ones  of  the  Therapeuts.  Both  drew 
from  an  Eastern,  probably  from  a  Buddhistic  source,  and 
this  explains  why  the  Therapeuts  are  by  Josephus 
compared  with  the  Pythagoreans. 

Daniel,  the  Magi,  and  the  Rabbi. 

The  foreign  doctrines  and  rites  which  the  Essenes 
have  acknowledgedly  introduced  into  Judaism  can  be 
shown  to  have  stood  in  some  connection  with  those  of 
the  Magi  and  with  those  of  the  Rabbinical  schools. 
Thus  may  be  explained  the  remarkable  parallel  be- 
tween the  three  classes  of  the  Magi  and  the  three 
classes  of  the  Rabbi,  which  has  been  strangely  over- 
looked. The  Herbed  or  scholar  corresponds  as-  exactly 
with  the  Rab,  as  the  Maubed  or  master  with  the 
Rabbi,  and  the  Destur-Maubed  or  perfect  master  with 
the  Rabban  or  Rabboni.  Daniel,  the  prophet,  was  set 
over  all  the  Magi,  and  he  may  be  identified  with 
Daniel,  the  priest  of  the  line  of  Ithamar,  as  is  done  in 
the  addenda  to  the  Book  of  Daniel  in  the  Septuagint. 
This  priest  Daniel  returned  with  Ezra  in  515,  if  Arta- 
xerxes,  or  '  King  of  the  Aryans,'  is  only  another  title 
for  Darius,  or  the  '  King  '  Hystaspes.  Also  Mahomedan 
tradition  makes  Daniel  the  prophet  die  in  Palestine, 
and,  according  to  Rabbinical  tradition,  he  was  one  of 
the  members  of  the  Great  Synagogue  under  Ezra. 
Nebuchadnezzar  can  hardly  have  besieged  Jerusalem 
and  exported  this  Daniel  in  the  third  year  of  Jehoia- 


DANIEL    THE    PROPHET    AND    DANIEL    THE    PRIEST.         85 

kirn,  B.C.  609-608,  even  as  vice-regent.1  If  this  Daniel, 
whom  we  may  distinguish  from  the  one  mentioned  by 
Ezechiel,  was  not  exported  till  588  as  a  youth,  he  may 
well  have  returned  73  years  later  under  Ezra,  or  the 
priest  Daniel  was  a  relative  of  the  prophet.  This  is 
not  unimportant  as  regards  the  connection  between 
Eabbinical  and  Magian  tradition,  to  which  the  parallel 
between  the  three  classes  of  the  Magi  and  those  of 
the  Eabbi  unmistakably  point.  Even  if  the  exported 
Daniel  did  not  survive  the  time  of  the  return,  the 
tradition  of  his  Chaldaean  and  Magian  knowledge  must 
have  been  transported  to  the  Land  of  Promise. 

Daniel  was  of  noble  and  probably  of  royal  and 
Davidic  descent,  like  Zerubbabel.  If  so,  he  was  a 
descendant  from  Caleb  the  Kenesite,  and  his  ancestors 
were  non-Hebrews  and  strangers  in  Israel,  like  the 
Eechabites  or  Kenites,  who  inhabited  the  land  before 
Abraham  entered  it,  and  who  continued  to  live  with 
the  Israelites  as  strangers.  By  a  possible  ethnological 
scheme  these  naturalised  strangers  can  be  connected 
with  the  Chaldseans,  Casdim  or  conquerors,  with  whom 
the  forefathers  of  Abraham  had  lived  in  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees  or  Casdim.  The  pre-Abrahamitic  Chaldgeans 
or  conquerors  of  Mesopotamia  cannot  be  distinguished 
without  reason  from  the  Medes  who  captured  Babylon, 
according  to  Berosus,  in  B.C.  2458.  These  Medes  may 
already  at  that  time  have  called  their  priests  Magi,  and 
as  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  the  Magi  are  identified  with 
the  Chaldseans,  Daniel  may  be  said  to  have  been  set 
over  the  descendants  of  those  Medes  who  conquered 
Babylon  about  500  years  before  the  birth  of  Abraham 
in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees.  Although  Daniel  had  in 
Babylon  to  be  taught  the  learning  and  the  language  of 
the  Chaldaaans,  yet  this  Aramaean  language  was  known 
in  the  eighth  century  to  such  men  as  Eliakim,  perhaps  a 
high  priest,  and  Shebna,  the  Scribe,  and  they  may  also 

1  Oomp.  Jer.  xxxvi.  1,  9,  29 ;  xxv.  1 ;  xlvi.  2. 


86  THE   ESSENES   AND   THE   EAST. 

have  known  the  wisdom  or  tradition  of  the  Chaldgeans, 
Medes,  or  Magi.  The  non-Hebrew  tradition,  if  not  the 
language  of  the  Medo-Chaldasan  strangers  in  Israel,  may 
therefore  have  been  represented  by  the  latter  in  every 
period  of  Hebrew  history.  Already  182  years  after 
Abraham  had  left  Ur  for  Haran,  or  in  the  year 
B.C.  1811,  Laban,  grandson  of  Nahor,  who  had  remained 
in  Ur,  called  the  heap  of  stones  by  an  Aramaean  or 
Chaldasan  name,  whilst  Jacob,  Abraham's  grandson,- 
gave  it  a  Hebrew  name. 

It  must  here  suffice  to  state,  that  to  the  presence  of 
two  races  in  Israel,  the  Hebrew  and  the  non-Hebrew  or 
Chaldasan,  may  be  referred  the  Elohistic  and  the  Jeho- 
vistic  records  in  Mosaic  writings,  and  also  the  two 
rival  high-priestly  lines  of  Eleazar  and  Ithamar.  The 
latter  of  these  was  in  the  time  of  Saul  connected  with 
the  tribe  of  Judah,  whilst  its  name  points  to  Thamar, 
whom  Philo  calls  a  stranger.  To  this  ethnic  dualism 
in  Israel  may  also  be  referred  the  two  political  parties 
of  later  times,  the  Sadducees  and  the  Pharisees,  the 
name  of  the  latter  having  possibly  been  derived  from 
Pharis  (Faris) ,  the  Arabian  name  for  the  Persians.1 
Finally,  with  the  two  races  in  Israel  may  have  stood  in 
some  possible  connection  the  two  chiefs  of  the  Scribes, 
Sugoth  or  Ishkolin,  later  Katholikoi.  These  chiefs  of 
the  secret  association  of  the  Chaberim  are,  according 
to  pre-Christian  Jewish  tradition,  designated  as  recog- 

1  Oomp.  Phares  and  Pharesites,  or  Pherisites  (Perizzites).  Phares  was 
the  son  of  a  mixed  marriage,  which,  by  a  figurative  interpretation,  may  have 
been  referred  to  the  union  of  Hebrews  and  Kenites  in  Arad.  As  in  the  land 
of  Faris  the  faras  or  horse  of  the  Arabians  was  indigenous,  which  the  ancient 
Babylonians  called  the  '  animal  of  the  East,'  it  is  but  natural  to  explain  with 
Pott,  the  Hebrew  words  for  the  horse— sus,  the  driving  horse,  and  parash, 
the  riding  horse,  respectively  with  Susa  and  faras,  though  in  Assyrian  faras 
does  not  mean  the  horse,  and  its  etymology  is  doubtful.  In  Egypt  no 
reference  to  a  horse  was  made  before  the  Hyksos-rule.  One  of  the  Egyptian 
words  for  '  horse '  is  sus,  the  other  means  'tribute.'  Both  point  to  the  importa- 
tion of  the  horse  by  the  Hyksos,  the  Median  conquerors,  who,  after  their 
expulsion  from  Egypt,  returned  to  Mesopotamia  as  the  *  Arabian '  dynasty 
of  Berosus.     {Chronology  of  the  Bible.) 


TWO    RACES    IN    ISRAEL.  87 

nised  organs  of  that  verbal  tradition,  the  Holy  Mer- 
kabah,  which  Moses  is  said  to  have  entrusted  to  70 
elders,  who  transmitted  it  to  the  prophets  and  these  to 
the  members  of  the  Great  Synagogue.  With  the  last 
surviving  member  of  the  latter,  with  Simon  the  Just 
(b.c.  348  ?),  has  been  connected  the  transmitted  list  of 
pairs  of  Scribes  down  to  Gamaliel.1 

After  the  Captivity,  not  provably  before  the  time 
of  Herod,  three  classes  of  Rabbi  were  introduced,  which 
form  so  remarkable  a  parallel  with  those  of  the  Magi, 
that  we  are  more  and  more  entitled  to  assume,  if  not  a 
connection,  a  common  Oriental  source  for  the  Rabbi- 
nical or  Synagogal  and  the  Magian  institution.  It  is 
remarkable  that  the  introduction  of  the  title  Rabban  or 
Rabboni,  which  presupposes  the  lower  titles  of  Rabbi 
and  of  Rab,  is  by  tradition  connected  with  the  contest 
between  the  pair  of  Scribes  represented  by  Hillel  '  the 
Babylonian,'  or  Chaldee,  and  Shammai,  and  that  it  was 
Simeon,  the  son  of  Hillel,  and  possibly  the  Simeon  of 
the  Gospel,  who  first  received  the  title  Rabban.  The 
corresponding  title  of  Destur-Maubed  must  have  been 
given  to  Daniel  as  chief  of  the  Magi,  to  which  office  the 
title  Rab-Mag  probably  stood  in  some  relation,  which 
we  find  already  in  the  Book  of  Jeremiah.  The  Rab- 
Mag  was  however  a  lower  title  than  the  Rab-Chartumim 
or  Rabban,  though  it  was  a  higher  title  than  the  Rab- 
signin.  Rab  was  known  to  the  Babylonians  as  Rabu, 
which,  like  the  Hebrew  Rab,  meant  '  great.'  The  word 
is  as  certainly  Semitic  or  Median  as  Mag  is  Japhetic, 
Aryan,  or  pre-Semitic.  The  three  years'  noviciate  which 
Daniel  had  to  pass  among  the  Magi  can  be  compared 
to  the  four  classes  of  initiation  among  the  Brahmans 
and  the  Essenes,  since  the  latter,  like  the  Magi,  had 
a  double  noviciate.  A  similar  institution  were  the 
four  Rabbinical  stages  of  purity,  and  the  secret  associa- 
tion of  the  Chaberim  or  Scribes  may  have  also  been  so 

1  Neh.  viii.  13  :  Zohar  iii.  157  ;  Ecclus.  1.  1 ;  Pirke-Aboth,  1. 


88  THE   ESSENES   AND   THE   EAST. 

classed.  A  more  direct  confirmation  of  the  Oriental 
and  West-Iranian  or  Magian  source  of  the  Syna- 
gogue may  be  derived  from  the  implied  fact,  that  only 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  visited  the  Temple  as  well  as 
the  synagogues,  where  they  strove  to  occupy  the  first 
seats,  whilst  the  Sadducees  are  never  mentioned  as 
attending  them.  This  fact  is  all  the  more  significant 
since  the  Sadducees  forbad  the  Pharisees  the  open  pro- 
mulgation of  the  tradition  of  '  their  ancestors,'  and 
since  the  former  originated  the  persecution  of  Stephen 
and  of  those  of  his  followers  who  called  themselves 
Christians. 

The  principles  of  the  Synagogue :  universal  priest- 
hood, self-responsibility,  absence  of  bloody  sacrifices,  are 
of  Iranian  origin.  Opposed  to  them  are  the  principles  of 
the  Temple  :  hereditary  priests  as  trustees  of  religious 
mysteries,  as  sole  proprietors  of  the  key  of  knowledge, 
as  a  conscience-guiding  authority,  connected  with  cere- 
monial observances  and  bloody  sacrifices,  all  of  which 
are  provably  of  Indian  origin.  The  figurative  or  alle- 
gorical interpretation  of  the  letter,  the  most  fruitful  of 
the  principles  of  the  Synagogue,  was  a  necessary  conse- 
quence of  the  Sadducean  prohibition  to  promulgate 
openly  the  ancestorial  tradition  of  the  Pharisees.  Yet 
these  and  the  Scribes,  not  the  Sadducees,  were  said  by 
Jesus  to  be,  and  thus  to  have  continued,  in  the  seat  of 
Moses,  as  guides  whose  directions  were  to  be  followed. 

The  Massora,  the  Targumim,  and  the  Essenes. 

We  have  no  right  to  discard  as  pure  invention  the 
tradition  of  the  Pirke-Aboth  or  words  of  the  Fathers, 
about  the  verbal  tradition  or  Massora,  transmitted  since 
Moses.  It  helps  us  to  throw  light  on  the  Hebrew  and 
the  non-Hebrew  or  Kenite  tradition,  of  both  of  which 
we  may  regard  Moses  the  Hebrew  to  have  been  the 
depositor,  since  he  was  acquainted  with  all  the  know- 


THE    HIDDEN    WISDOM.  89 

ledge  of  the  Egyptians.  The  Kenite  tradition  was  that 
of  his  father-in-law,  but  in  Israel  it  was  the  tradition 
of  the  stranger  and  thus  of  the  minority.  Yet  Moses 
seems  to  have  interwoven  the  Jehovistic  records  of  the 
Iranian  Kenites  with  the  Elohistic  records  of  the  Indian 
Hebrews.  Later  revisions  certainly  took  place,  and 
made  the  legal  distinctions  between  the  Hebrew  and  the 
stranger  more  severe.      If  we   were  to   assume,   that 

o  7 

Moses  himself  did  forbid  the  marriage  of  Hebrews  and 
Moabites,  Boaz  could  never  have  married  Euth,  and 
thus  the  ancestry  of  David  would  be  connected  with  an 
illegal  practice. 

It  is  the  theory  of  a  verbal  tradition  among  the 
Jews  since  Mosaic  times,  which  alone  seems  fully  to 
explain  the  origin  and  the  character  of  the  Targumists 
or  Massoretes,  and  the  relation  of  these  interpreters  of 
Scripture  with  the  Scribes,  who  are  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment designated  as  trustees  of  the  tradition,  and  who 
certainly  cannot  have  been  mere  copyists  or  counters  of 
letters,  or  inventors  of  vowel-points.  Although  the 
vowel-points  hitherto  known  are  of  post-Christian 
origin,  a  new  set  of  vow  el-points,  differing  from  the 
former,  has  been  lately  discovered,  and  it  is  held  as 
probable  that  they  are  more  ancient.1  Long  before 
Ezra,  vowel-points  may  have  been  known  to  the  Scribes 
and  elders  as  guardians  of  tradition.  By  the  theory  of 
a  hidden  wisdom  the  entire  Eabbinical  literature,  which 
ended  in  the  Talmud,  can  be  better  explained  than  by 
the  assumption  that,  some  time  after  the  Eeturn  from 
Babylon,  interpretations  of  Scripture  had  become  neces- 
sary merely  because  of  the  Hebrew-Chaldean  or  Ara- 
maic dialect,  which  was  not  generally  understood.  In 
this  uniformly  degraded  language,  in  which  only  one 
verse  in  the  Book  of  Jeremiah  has  been  written,  all  the 
Scriptures  from  and  after  the  time  of  Haggai,  the  Book 
of  Daniel  included,  have  been  composed.     Not  so  much 

1  This  is  Mr.  Ginsburg's  opinion. 


90  THE    ESSENES   AND   THE   EAST. 

the  Chaldsean  language  as  the  Chaldsean  wisdom  required 
interpretation.  The  latter  enabled  the  Targumists  to 
harmonise  the  Hebrew  and  the  Chaldgean  meaning  of 
the  word,  and  thus  also  the  two  traditions.  It  is  quite 
possible,  that  the  Targumists  were  bound  by  a  tradi- 
tional canon  of  interpretation,  transmitted  since  the 
time  of  Moses,  if  not  from  earlier  times,  and  represent- 
ing essentially  the  tradition  of  the  strangers  in  Israel, 
particularly  of  the  Medo-Chaldseans  or  Chasdim. 

We  shall  connect  the  foreign  or  non-Hebrew  doc- 
trinal element,  which  was  provably  represented  by  the 
Essenes,  with  the  mixed  tradition  of  the  Magi  or 
priests  of  the  Chalclseans,  and  especially  with  Buddhism, 
the  asceticism  of  which  was  so  similar  to  that  of  the. 
Magi.  The  Medo-Chaldasans,  like  the  Scribes  and  like 
the  Assidseans  and  Essenes,  formed  a  corporation,  the 
members  of  which,  we  may  assume,  were  initiated  in 
the  mysteries  of  ancestorial  tradition.  With  the  Assi- 
dseans  or  Chassidim,  the  pious  ones  or  the  saints,  who 
were  established  as  an  order  before  the  Maccabean 
rising,  the  Essenes  have  been  very  generally  identified.1 
Even  the  name  Essenes,  like  that  of  the  Assidgeans,  can 
have  been  derived  from  the  Hebrew  Chassin,  and  Philo 
connects  their  name  with  their  holy  life.  It  is  certain 
that  the  name  Essenes  was  connected  with  the  Magi, 
since  the  Megabyzi  among  the  Magi,  that  is,  the  circum- 
cised Curette  or  Corybanthians,  the  priests  of  Artemis 
(Cybele,  Ishtar,  Diana),  which  successors  of  Corybas 
represented  Cabirian  mysteries,  are  by  Pausanias  called 
Essenaenes.2  The  Essenes,  and  no  doubt  also  the  Eabbis 
with  their  three  classes,  stood  in  connection  with  the 
Medo-Chaldoean  or  Magian  institution,  and  formed  a 
link  between  Babylon  and  Jerusalem.  The  provable 
connection  of  the  Jewish  books  of  the  Captivity  and 
Return,  as  also  of  the  most  ancient  paraphrases  or  Tar- 

1  Thus  by  Rappaport,  Frankel,  Jost,  Ewald,  and  Ginsburg. 

2  Paus.  viii.  3,  1 ;  Clem.  Alex.  Exort.  2. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  NEW    NAMES.  91 

gumim  with  Iranian  tradition,  obliges  us  to  assume 
either  the  importation  of  entirely  new  doctrinal  elements 
into  the  Israelitic  community,  or  a  verbal  tradition  or 
Massoret,  transmitted  possibly  since  the  times  of  Moses, 
if  not  of  Abraham,  as  the  tradition  of  the  Medo- 
Chaldsean  stranger  in  Israel,  developed  and  partly  pub- 
lished after  the  Eeturn  from  Babylon.  The  promulgation 
of  more  or  less  new  doctrines  in  Israel  after  the  Eeturn 
from  Babylon  is  a  fact,  and  it  is  probable  at  the  outset, 
that  with  this  doctrinal  development,  the  provable 
introduction  of  non-Hebrew  doctrines  and  customs  into 
Israel  by  the  Essenes,  stood  in  some  connection. 

The  Mosaic  Scriptures,  said  to  have  been  lost  during 
the  Captivity,  were  recomposed  in  the  Aramaic  lan- 
guage on  the  Eeturn  from  Babylon,  or  about  a  thousand 
years  after  Moses.  Even  then  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
could  not  have  conveyed  to  the  people  a  fixed  meaning, 
unless  we  assume,  that  already  Ezra  introduced  vowel- 
points.  Not  until  the  time  of  the  Captivity  and  the 
Eeturn,  can  the  introduction  of  the  words  Shemeh,  or 
name,  formed  by  transposition  after  the  mysterious 
Chaldsean  Sehem,  and  Memra,  Word  of  God,  be  proved 
in  Hebrew  writings,  where  they  are  substituted  for 
Jehova.  Yet  we  find  both  these  words  in  the  Mosaic 
writings  as  transmitted  to  us.1  This  is  all  the  more 
remarkable,  since  in  the  Book  of  Exodus  the  '  Name '  of 
God  is  connected  with  the  Angel  of  God,  as  the  '  Word  ' 
of  God  is  connected  with  man.  The  most  ancient 
Targumim,  perhaps  composed  soon  after  the  Eeturn, 
and  partly  edited  in  Babylon,  not  only  constantly  change 
the  name  of  Jehova  into  Memra  or  Word,  or  into 
Shechina  or  glory,  but  Memra  was  the  designation  of 
the  Angel  of  God  in  whom,  according  to  Exodus,  is  the 
Name   of   God.2     Thus  the   two  new  expressions   for 


2  Lenormant,  Chaldean  Magic  (Cooper's  edition),  p.  42,  where  Shemeh 
ought  to  stand  for  Memra. 


92  THE   ESSEXES   AND   THE    EAST. 

Jehova,  whether  or  not  they  had  been  transmitted  as 
Mosaic  verbal  tradition,  and  which  were  exceptionally 
inserted  in  the  Scriptures  bearing  the  name  of  Moses, 
have  been  some  time  after  the  Eeturn  from  Babylon 
connected  with  the  Messiah  as  the  Angel  of  God.  It 
was  easier  to  do  so,  since  the  Messiah  was  by  Malachi 
designated  as  a  messenger  or  Maleach,  which  word  has 
also  the  meaning  of  angel. 

The  promulgation  of  new  names  for  the  Deity  after 
the  Eeturn  from  Babylon,  and  through  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures, must  be  connected  with  the  first  introduction  of 
the  doctrine  of  angels  among  the  people  of  Israel. 
Although  the  party  of  the  Sadducees  cannot  be  traced 
till  after  the  Captivity,  yet  they  must  have  represented 
a  very  ancient  tradition,  which  seems  to  have  been  con- 
nected with  that  Elohistic  stream  which  the  ethnic 
dualism  in  Israel  perhaps  enables  us  to  connect  with 
India.  The  Sadducees  did  not  believe  in  angels  or 
spirits,  according  to  Josephus.  They  must  have  there- 
fore either  known  nothing  of  an  early  insertion  of  the 
doctrine  of  angels  into  Mosaic  Scriptures,  or  they  must 
have  disbelieved  a  doctrine  which  the  lawgiver  himself 
had  promulgated  by  what  he  wrote.  In  either  case 
the  Sadducees  would  make  use  of  their  power  to  forbid 
the  Pharisees  to  promulgate  the  tradition  of  their  fore- 
fathers, as  Josephus  asserts  they  did.  This  tradition  of 
the  Pharisees  must  have  included  the  belief  in  angels, 
for  otherwise  the  Sadducean  unbelief  in  this  doctrine, 
with  which  that  of  the  resurrection  and  future  judg- 
ment was  closely  connected,  would  not  have  been  men- 
tioned as  a  peculiarity  of  their  religious  system.  The 
ancestral  tradition  of  the  Pharisees,  including  the  doc- 
trine of  angels,  may  be  with  increasing  certainty  con- 
nected with  Persia,  the  Pilaris  of  the  Arabians,  and 
from  which  name  that  of  the  Pharisees  may  have  been 
derived.  For  the  doctrine  of  angels  was  first  intro- 
duced and  developed  by  the  Iranians,  and  their  tradition 


THE    MASS0RA.  93 

was  represented  by  the  Magi  in  Mesopotamia,  by  the 
Buddhists  in  India,  and  probably  by  the  Essenes  in 
Palestine  and  Egypt. 

The  secret  tradition,  Massora  or  Gnosis  of  the  Jews, 
later  called  Kabbala,  was  certainly  not  derived  from 
Greek  philosophy ;  but  it  can  be  connected  with  the 
secret  tradition  of  the  Essenes,  and  thus  with  the 
Medes  and  Chaldasans  of  pre-Abraharnitic  times,  as  also 
with  Parsism  and  Buddhism.  A  connection  can  be 
established  between  the  Book  of  Daniel,  the  Targumim, 
the  Apocrypha  of  the  Septuagint  and  the  whole  Apoca- 
lyptic literature.  The  doctrinal  development  repre- 
sented by  these  Scriptures  is  essentially  Essenic. 

Essenic  Doctrines  in  the  Septuagint. 

Whilst  the  Essenic  dogma  in  many  respects  can  be 
compared  with  that  of  the  Sadducees,  it  certainly 
differed  from  the  latter  as  regards  angels,  the  names  of 
which  the  Essene  had  to  swear  to  keep  secret.  At  the 
time  when  the  Essenic  corporation  can  be  proved  to 
have  existed,  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century 
before  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  the 
introduction  of  the  doctrine  of  angels,  and  even  of  a 
hierarchy  of  angels,  imported  from  Babylon,  together 
with  the  Essenic  doctrine  of  the  eternal  punishment 
of  wicked  souls,  had  taken  place.  We  find  it  in  the 
canonical  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures  of  the  Jews,  in 
neither  of  which  there  is  a  trace  of  doctrinal  Greek 
influence,  and  also  in  the  most  ancient  Targumim.  In 
the  earlier  books  of  the  Septuagint,  published  from  and 
after  B.C.  280,  the  word  '  angel '  or  '  angels '  is  substi- 
tuted for  Jehova,  just  as,  in  the  pre-Christian  Targumim, 
Memra,  the  '  Word,'  Shechina,  the  'glory,'  'and  the 
Angel  of  the  Lord'  are  substituted  for  Jehova,  and 
referred  to  the  Messiah. 

The  connection  of  the  Septuagint  and  its  Apocrypha 


94  THE   ESSENES   AND   THE   EAST. 

not  known  to  the  Hebrew  canon,  with  the  most  ancient 
Targumim,  partly  edited  in  Babylon,  perhaps  soon 
after  the  return  of  some  Jews  to  Jerusalem,  is  of  the 
utmost  importance,  because  the  time  of  publication  of 
the  Septuagint  is  settled  beyond  doubt.  Therefore  a 
review  of  the  doctrines  in  the  latter  must  precede  a 
consideration  of  the  Messianic  passages  in  the  Tar- 
gumim. The  Greek  canon  was  composed  in  all  its 
parts  a  few  years  before  the  actual  attestation  of  the 
Essenic  order,  which  was  preceded  by  the  similar 
order  of  the  Assidseans  or  Cassidim,  even  assuming 
that  both  were  not  identical.  The  more  the  Essenes, 
with  whom  we  may  safely  connect  the  Eechabites, 
can  be  connected  with  the  Magian  and  Buddhistic 
doctrines  and  rites,  the  more  certain  will  it  become' 
that  this  third  and  independent  party  among  the  Jews 
introduced  Eastern  elements,  some  of  them  pre- 
Buddhistic,  and  among  these  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah.  With  such  pre-Christian  mysticism,  deeper 
knowledge  or  Gnosis,  the  composition  of  the  Septuagint 
must  be  connected.  This  can  be  proved  to  demonstra- 
tion from  the  Essenic  point  of  view,  by  a  brief  analysis 
of  the  new  and  characteristic  features  of  the  Greek- 
Jewish  Scriptures,  which  are  about  a  thousand  years 
more  ancient  than  the  first  manuscript  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  transmitted  to  us. 

The  account  given  by  Philo  about  the  composition 
of  the  Septuagint  is  all  the  more  important  for  the 
critical  but  impartial  inquirer,  because  its  conclusion 
did  not  take  place  till  his  lifetime,  if  the  learned 
Jerome  was  right  in  believing  that  one  of  the 
Apocrypha,  called  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  had  Philo 
for  its  author.1     Philo's  near  relation  to,  if  not  connec- 

1  Jer.  Praef.  in  lib.  Sal.  '  Nonnulli  scriptorum  veterum  hunc  esse  Judaei 
Philonis  affirmant.'  Luther  accepted  this  view.  If  we  can  connect  Philo 
with  the  Therapeuts  living  near  the  town  of  his  birth,  the  view  of  Eichhorn, 
Zeller,  and  Jost  about  the  author  being  a  Therapeut  coincides  with  the  tra- 
dition transmitted  by  Jerome.  The  same  would  be  the  case  if  Apollos  were 
regarded  as  its  author  (Noack,  Plumptre,  and  others),  as  also  of  the  Epistle 


PHILO   AND   THE   WISDOM    OF   SOLOMON.  95 

tion  with,  the  Essenic  Therapeuts  of  Egypt,  especially 
of  Alexandria,  is  certain.  The  Essenes  are  by  Philo 
stated  to  have  asserted  the  principle  of  a  continued  and 
gradually  revealing  Divine  inspiration,  and  thus  of  a 
higher  stage  of  revelation  than  that  conveyed  by  the 
letter  of  the  revered  Mosaic  Scriptures.  Philo  believed 
that  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  '  had  been  divinely  given  by 
direct  inspiration,'  and  that  they  who  composed  them 
'  prophesied  like  men  inspired.'  The  Essenes  studied, 
according  to  Philo's  statement,  '  the  sacred  oracles  of 
God  enunciated  by  the  holy  prophets.'  But  the  Essenes 
held,  that  the  prophets  of  the  past  had  written  in  such 
a  manner  that  prophets  of  the  future  might  find  out 
6  the  invisible  meaning  concealed  under  and  lying 
beneath  the  plain  words.'  The  light  of  the  secret 
meaning  thus  revealed,  was  not  only  assumed  to  come 
from  the  same  Divine  source  which  inspires  the  prophets 
of  all  ages,  but  Philo  designates  it  as  a  higher  stage  of 
inspiration,  so  much  higher  as  the  soul  is  with  regard 
to  the  body,  with  which  he  compares  the  law.  In  con- 
nection with  the  views  thus  enunciated  by  Philo  with 
regard  to  the  inspired  and  prophetic  character  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  he  declares,  that  he  considers  the 
composers  of  the  Septuagint  version  '  not  mere  inter- 
preters but  hierophants  (the  word  taken  from  the  first 
priest  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries)  and  prophets,  to 
whom  it  had  been  granted,  with  their  honest  and  guile- 
less minds,  to  go  along  with  the  most  pure  spirit  of 
Moses.' 

The  question  whether  the  Septuagint  is  faithful  in 
substance  cannot  be  better  answered  than  by  the  light 
which  Paul  throws  on  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures, 
especially  of  the  Greek  text,  which  he  almost  invariably 
prefers  to  quote,  as  Jesus  is  likewise  reported  to  have 
done  in  his  sayings.     The  Septuagint  is  as  faithful  to 

to  the  Hebrews,  which  we  shall  explain  by  a  development  of  Faulinic 
Essenianisni. 


96  THE   ESSENES   AND   THE   EAST. 

6  the  letter  that  killeth,'  as  it  is  possible  with  due  regard 
to  the  spirit  which  '  giveth  light '  and  which  inspired 
its  writers,  according  to  Philo's  testimony.  Nor  does 
Philo  stand  alone  in  this  view  of  the  higher  standard  of 
inspiration  as  conveyed  by  the  Septuagint.  For  Jerome, 
the  Father  who  cites  the  ancient  tradition  which  attri- 
butes the  Book  of  Wisdom  to  Philo,  clearly  implies,  that 
the  translators  were  divinely  moved  to  add  to  the 
original  and  thus  to  perforin  the  office  of  prophets, 
giving  a  new  revelation  by  every  addition  as  well  as  by 
all  their  deviations  from  the  Hebrew  text.  By  so  doing 
they  acted  in  harmony,  not  with  the  letter,  but  with 
4  the  most  pure  spirit  of  Moses,'  according  to  Philo's 
words.1  If  it  were  argued  that  he  had  no  authority  for 
saying  so,  there  would  remain  unexplained  the  confirma- 
tion of  this  view  by  the  learned  Jerome,  and  the  more 
general  testimony  of  Irenaeus  and  Augustine  as  to  the 
Divine  inspiration  of  the  Septuagint,  confirmed  as  it  was 
by  the  citations  in  the  New  Testament. 

The  Essenic  and  Philonian,  the  Targumistic  and 
Paulinian  doctrine  of  inspiration,  according  to  which 
fiery  sparks  of  the  spirit  were  to  be  produced  from  the 
letter  as  from  the  flint,  is  indirectly  confirmed  by  the 
deeper  and  spiritual  sense  which  the  transmitted  parables 
of  Jesus  convey.  He  taught  the  mysteries  of  the 
spiritual  kingdom  to  a  few  only  when  he  was  alone 
with  them,  not  within  hearing  of  the  spies  who  were 
watching  him,  and  of  those  whose  predecessors  in  office 
had  '  taken  away  the  key  of  knowledge.'  The  preaching 
of  Jesus  and  the  Gospel  which  Paul  preached  are  by 
the  Apostle  declared  to  centre  in  the  revelation  of  a 
mystery  kept  '  in  silence,'  in  the  revelation  of  '  the 
hidden  wisdom.'     Origen  writes  :    '  If  we  were  obliged 

1  Philo,  Be  Vita  Mosis,  ii.  G,  7 ;  August.  Praef.  in  Pared,  i.  col.  1419  ; 
Prolog,  in  Genesin,  i.  Canon  and  Professor  Selwyn  denies  this  conclusion, 
in  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  '  Septuagint.'  He  says  :  '  The  Septuagint  is  the 
image  of  the  original  seen  through  a  glass  not  adjusted  to  its  proper  focus.' 


CONTINUOUS   INSPIRATION.  07 

to  keep  to  the  letters,  and  to  understand  what  is 
written  in  the  law  according  to  the  manner  of  the  Jews 
or  of  the  people,  I  would  blush  to  proclaim  loudly  my 
belief,  that  it  is  God  who  has  given  these  laws  ;  in  that 
case  the  laws  of  men,  as,  for  instance,  those  of  the 
Eomans,  Athenians,  and  Lacedemonians,  would  appear 
better  and  more  reasonable.'  In  another  passage  Orio-en 
says  :  4  I  believe  that  everybody  must  regard  these 
things  as  figures,  under  which  a  secret  meaning  lies 
hidden.'     Paul  accuses  Moses  of  having  hidden.1 

It  may  be  said  against  this  scheme  of  a  hidden 
wisdom,  which  cannot  be  proved  to  have  existed  till 
after  the  return  from  Captivity,  that  its  connection 
with  a  verbal  tradition  entrusted  by  Moses  to  the  elders 
is  non-proven.  Yet  Philo,  the  Essenes,  the  Targumists, 
and  probably  the  early  Christians,  explained  the  doctrinal 
development  in  the  Scriptures  by  the  gradual  proclama- 
tion of  mysteries  which  the  Initiated  handed  down  since 
the  time  of  Moses.  They  all  believed  in  a  new  inspiration, 
and  seem  to  imply,  that  it  took  cognisance  of  the  capa- 
bilities and  of  the  exigencies  of  advanced  times,  and 
particularly  of  the  contact  of  Israel  with  other  nations, 
with  the  East.  The  more  that  the  connection  of 
Essenic  doctrines  and  rites  with  the  Magi  and  Buddhists 
can  be  established,  the  more  certain  will  it  become, 
that  the  deeper  knowledge  or  gnosis  of  pre-Christian 
times,  which  the  Essenes  and  Eabbis  represented,  can 
only  then  lay  claim  to  revelation,  if  Zoroaster,  Moses, 
and  Buddha  are  regarded  as  organs  of  the  same  reveal- 
ing Spirit  of  God.  This  is  done  by  men  like  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  Origen,  and  Augustine ;  the  latter  saying, 
that  what  is  called  Christian  doctrine  was  earlier  known 
under  different  names.  On  this  assumption  it  could  be 
asserted,  that  those  who  composed  the  Septuagint, 
writing  as  divinely  inspired  prophets,  acted  in  harmony 

1  Orig.  Homiil.  7,  in  Lcvit.  ;  Huet,  Origeniana,  167;  2  Cor.  iii.  12-18  • 
iv,  1-3. 

H 


98  THE    ESSENES   AND    THE    EAST. 

with  the  pure  spirit  of  Moses.  The  Essenic  theory  of 
inspiration  is,  in  fact,  of  the  same  nature  as  the  Eab- 
binical  theory,  possibly  of  later  origin,  that  from  the 
time  of  Moses  to  that  of  Ezra  elders  and  prophets  had 
been  in  possession  of  a  verbal  tradition  which  was 
not  promulgated  in  Israel  till  after  the  Eeturn  from 
Babylon.  The  belief  in  a  continuous  inspiration  suffices 
to  account  for  the  claim  of  Divine  authority  for  books 
showing  studied  and  systematic  deviations  from  those 
transmitted  as  Mosaic.  If  Moses  could  not  put  an  end 
to  the  generally  prevailing  system  of  hiding,  he  could 
hardly  have  deviated  from  the  universal  custom  of 
initiation  in  mysteries.  Some  of  the  new  productions  in 
the  Greek  Canon  were  called  Apocrypha  or '  hidden,'  and 
are  published  under  fictitious  names,  apparently  with  a 
view  to  invest  them  with  a  Divine  authority. 

The  Book  of  Wisdom,  falsely  and  intentionally 
attributed  to  Solomon,  must  be  regarded,  with  Basil 
and  Jerome,  as  the  work  of  Philo,  the  only  person  to 
whom  the  authorship  is  assigned.  Jerome  was  the  con- 
temporary of  the  church-historian  Eusebius  ;  and  they 
both  attest,  the  one  in  direct  connection  with  the  first 
stay  of  Peter  at  Eome,  that  in  this  city,  where  Jerome 
received  his  earliest  education,  and  where  he  was  later 
appointed  as  teacher,  Peter  met  Philo  of  Alexandria. 
They  imply,  that  this  happened  a.d.  42,  which  is  also 
the  year  mentioned  in  the  Pseudo-Clementines  as  the  year 
when  the  Apostle  first  reached  Eome.  This  informa- 
tion is  strikingly  confirmed  by  the  fact,  that  Philo 
describes  his  being  in  Eome  in  41,  and  gives  reasons  for 
assuming  that  he  was  there  the  next  year  also.1  Philo 
and  Peter  are  said  to  have  had  '  familiar  conversation ' 
in  Eome.  Eusebius  regards  this  as  '  not  at  all  impro- 
bable,' since  in  his  writings  Philo  not  only  '  describes 
with  the  greatest  accuracy  the  lives  of  our  ascetics,  that 
is,  of  the  Therapeutic,'  but  also   '  extolled   and  revered 

1  E.  de  Bunsen,  The   Chronology  of  the  Bible,  81. 


PRE-CHEISTIAN   GNOSIS.  09 

the  apostolic  men  of  his  day.'  It  is  in  direct  connection 
with  this  statement,  that  Eusebius  refers  to  the  '  highly 
probable '  utilisation  of  Therapeutic  Scriptures  in  our 
Gospels  and  Pauline  Epistles,  especially  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews.1  And  yet  Philo,  with  whom  Peter  had 
familiar  intercourse,  is  said,  on  the  most  ancient 
authority,  to  have  composed  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  with 
which  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (by  Apollos)  is  un- 
questionably connected,  although  the  Philonian  work, 
by  the  general  tenour  of  its  teaching,  excludes  the  car- 
dinal doctrines  of  '  Christianity,'  the  incarnation,  atone- 
ment, and  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 

The  counter-argument,  that  the  doctrinal  character 
of  the  Book  of  Wisdom  is  '  foreign  to  the  pure  Hebrew 
mode  of  thought,' 2  may  be  at  once  dismissed,  if  a 
pre-Christian  gnosticism  can  be  proved,  which  Philo 
adopted.  As  this  Essenic  and  Eastern  gnosis  was  based 
on  the  doctrine  of  two  worlds  with  its  respective  rulers, 
of  which  there  is  no  trace  in  Israel  before  the  Captivity, 
it  is  a  striking  confirmation  of  the  Philonic  authorship, 
that  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom  the  personal  devil,  or  Satan, 
the  serpent,  is  mentioned,  whilst  the  Wisdom  of  God, 
though  identified  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  personified 
in  the  other  Apocrypha,  in  Ecclesiasticus  or  the  Book  of 
Sirach,  and  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  closed  at  an  inde- 
finite time.  The  identity  of  personified  Wisdom  with 
the  Spirit  of  God,  of  the  supermundane  creation  of  God 
with  the  Spirit  brooding  over  the  waters,  renders  futile 
all  subtle  arguments  about  a  possible  distinction 
between  the  personified  Word  of  God  and  the  personi- 
fied Wisdom  of  God,  as  respectively  representing  '  the 
mediative  element  in  the  action  of  God '  and  that  '  of 
his  omnipresence.'  Fire  was  the  symbol  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  thus  of  Wisdom ;  and  as  in  the  Book  of 
Wisdom   the  Almighty  Word  of  God   is   compared  to 

1  Ens.  H.E.,  ii.  17. 

3  Canon  Westcott,  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible. 
h  2 


100  THE    ESSENES   AND    THE    EAST. 

lightning,  so  in  the  same  Scripture  the  fiery  and  brazen 
serpent  is  explained  as  the  symbol  of  the  word  of  God, 
'  which  healeth  all  things,'  as  '  the  Saviour  of  all,'  who 
had  already  preserved  Adam  and  brought  him  out  of 
his  fall.1 

The  Wisdom  of  God  is  only  another  name  for  the 
Word  of  God  ;  and  the  personification  of  this  premun- 
dane  Saviour  may  be  identified  with  the  Angel  of  God, 
whom  Philo  designates  in  other  writings  as  the  com- 
panion of  the  human  soul,  and  at  the  same  time  as 
God's  Firstborn  and  God  himself. 

Yet  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom  no  incarnation  of  this 
Angel-Messiah  is  announced.  This  may  be  explained 
by  the  secret  tradition  of  the  Therapeuts.  No  more  is 
said,  than  that  through  the  Wisdom  of  God  pious  souls 
in  all  ages  are  made  '  sons  of  God  and  prophets.'  These 
are  the  expressed  Messianic  views  of  Philo,  who  per- 
sonifies the  Word  of  God  or  Messiah,  though  he  never 
refers  even  to  an  expected  Messiah,  and  no  more  than 
John  the  Baptist  (the  Essene)  regarded  his  contem- 
porary Jesus  as  the  fulfilment  of  such  expectations. 
This  cannot  be  a  mere  chance,  since  even  Josephus, 
probably  for  three  years  an  Essene,  avoids  the  Messianic 
doctrine,  perhaps  because  as  an  Essene  he  had  pro- 
mised not  to  divulge  it.  The  combination  of  the  Phil- 
onic,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  Essenic  conception  of  an 
Angelic  Messiah  and  Son  of  God  with  the  Hebrew  con- 
ception of  a  human  Messiah  and  son  of  David,  a  com- 
bination which  meets  us  in  the  Septuagint,  seems  at  the 
outset  to  have  been  effected  by  the  Essenes  or  Thera- 
peuts of  Alexandria.  In  order  to  have  some  ground  to 
claim  the  authority  of  Moses  for  their  new  theory  of  an 
Angel-Messiah,  they  would  so  render  those  passages 
which  Hebrews  might  possibly  regard  as  prophecies  of 
an  anointed  Man,  that  such  interpretation  should  by  the 

1  Prov.  viii.  22,  31  ;  Ecclus.  xxiv.;  Wisd,  ix.  17  ;  vii.  27  ;  xvi.  0,  7,  12  ; 
xviii.  15. 


THE    MEMRA    OF   THE    TARGUM.  101 

new  text  be  excluded,  and  that  the  more  perfect  or 
gnostic  text  should  point  to  the  Oriental  and  Essenic 
conception  of  an  anointed  Angel. 

The  personified  Wisdom  or  Word  of  God,  as 
described  in  the  Apocrypha  of  the  Septuagint,  is  by  the 
most  ancient  Targumim  identified  with  the  Angel  of 
God  who  followed  Israel  in  the  wilderness,  which  Angel 
is  by  Stephen  and  by  Paul,  almost  in  the  same  words, 
applied  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  Angel-Messiah.  According 
to  the  Targum  called  after  Onkelos,  it  was  '  the  thought 
or  Word  of  God  '  who  '  created  man  in  his  own  image, 
in  an  image  which  was  (stood  or  sat)  before  God.' 
Again,  it  was  the  personified  thought  or  Word  of  God 
who  said  to  Adam  :  'The  world  which  I  have  created 
lies  before  me,  darkness  and  light  He  before  me.'  The 
Word  of  God  said  :  '  Adam  whom  I  have  created  is 
now  alone  in  this  world,  as  I  am  (alone)  in  the  highest 
heaven.'  Thus  it  was  the  Word  or  Memra,  the  Angel 
of  God,  who  created  Adam.1 

According  to  the  pre-Christian  Targumim,  called 
after  Jonathan,  it  was  not  God  who  was  with  the  lad 
Ishmael,  but  the  Word  of  God  was  aiding  him ;  the 
'  voice  of  the  Word '  was  heard  by  Adam  and  Eve  in 
Eden ;  the  glory  of  God  went  up  from  Abraham ;  the 
personified  Word  came  to  Abimelech,  to  Jacob  in 
Bethel,  to  Moses  on  Sinai ;  the  Divine  presence,  or 
Shechina,  is  in  heaven  and  reigns  below,  and  it  is  by 
the  Targumist  identified  with  the  Angel  of  God  who 
went  before  and  followed  Israel  in  the  wilderness. 
Again,  the  passages  about  Shiloh,  about  Judah's  sceptre, 
and  the  star  of  Jacob,  are  Messianically  interpreted.2  In 
the  Targum  after  Jonathan  the  Maleach,  or  messenger, 
in  the  Book  of  Malachi  is  described  as  an  Angel,  as  a 
celestial  and  premundane  being,  hidden  from  the  eyes 
of  men  till  born  at  Bethlehem.    The  two  natures  of  the 

1  Targ.  Onk.     Gen.  ii.  27  ;  iii.  9  ;  iv.  22,  &c. 

2  Gen.  xlix.  10  ;  Num.  xxiv.  17. 


102  THE   ESSENES   AND    THE    EAST. 

celestial  and  the  terrestrial  Messiah  are  kept  distinct. 
'  My  Word '  rejoiced  over  'my  servant  the  Messiah.' 
Among  the  seventeen  passages  which  in  this  Targum 
are  explained  Messianically,  is  also  the  one  about  the 
serpent-bruiser.  The  Bereshith-Eabba,  a  record  of 
ancient  tradition  published  in  the  sixth  century  a.d., 
explains  the  Spirit  over  the  waters  as  the  Messiah  of 
the  future  world,  who  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
It  is  stated  there  that  the  Messiah  has  been  '  with  the 
Church  in  the  wilderness,'  as  '  Eock  of  the  Church  of 
Zion.' l 

Conclusion. 

The  argument  which  runs  through  this  Chapter  is 
the  following.  Philo,  the  earliest  and  highest  authority 
for  all  we  know  about  the  Essenes,  connects  them,  at 
least  indirectly,  with  East-Asiatic  religions.  Like  the 
Pythagoreans,  the  Essenes  may  have  derived  their 
peculiar  doctrines  directly  from  the  East.  Psammetick, 
Alexander,  and  Asoka  had  paved  the  way  for  such 
direct  transmission,  and  the  Parthian  kingdom  had  ever 
since  B.C.  250  established  a  bridge  between  East  and 
West.  The  remarkable  parallel  between  the  three 
classes  of  the  Magi  and  the  three  classes  of  Eabbi  shows, 
that  after  the  Eeturn  from  Babylon  close  relations  were 
established  between  the  land  of  the  Jews  and  the  land 
of  the  Magi.  The  connection  of  Daniel  with  the  Magi, 
their  identification  with  the  Chaldaeans,  the  prophet's 
probable  return  under  Ezra,  and  the  almost  certain 
foreign  origin  of  the  synagogues,  throw  some  light  on 
the  important  period  of  Jewish  captivity  in  Babylon. 
If  the  naturalised  stranger  in  Israel,  to  whom  the 
Eechabite  and  Essene  belonged,  at  least  since  the  time 
of  Moses,  was  descended  from  the  Medo-Chaldgeans,  who 
lived  in  Abraham's  native  city  of  Ur,  the  verbal  tradi- 

1   Tarq.  Jon.  to  Isaiah  xlii.  11,  1,  and  xv.   1  ;    comp.  Acts  vii.   37,  38  ; 
1  Cor.  x.  1-4. 


DID    ESSENES    EXPECT   AN    ANGEL-MESSIAH?  103 

tion  of  the  Jews,  the  Mass  or  a,  said  to  have  been  trans- 
mitted ever  since  Moses,  and  perhaps  identical  with 
the  ancestral  tradition  of  the  Essenes,  which  they  kept 
secret,  and  of  the  Pharisees,  to  whom  the  Sadducees 
did  not  permit  its  promulgation  among  the  people,  this 
verbal  tradition  among  Israelites  may  be  connected 
directly  or  indirectly  with  the  East.  The  non-Hebrew 
doctrinal  element  which  the  Essenes  represented  can 
clearly  be  traced  to  Parsism  and  Buddhism  ;  and  the  new 
words  and  doctrines  introduced  into  Hebrew  Scriptures 
after  the  Return  from  Babylon,  as  also  the  doctrinal  de- 
velopment in  the  Targumim,  in  the  Septuagint,  and 
in  the  canonical  and  non-canonical  Apocalypses,  is  best 
explained  by  the  spread  of  Ess  enic  influence  in  Palestine 
and  Egypt. 

The  Essenes  believed  in  Angels,  and  they  also  may 
have  believed  in  an  Angel-Messiah.  If  so,  they  were 
bound  not  to  reveal  anything  with  regard  to  their 
Messianic  expectations,  of  which,  in  fact,  nothing  has 
been  transmitted  to  us  before  the  time  of  Elkesai,  about 
100  a.d.  This  leads  us  to  assume,  at  the  outset,  that 
the  Essenes,  according  to  their  secret  tradition,  and 
thus  before  the  time  of  Elkesai,  member  of  their  sect, 
expected  as  Messiah  an  incarnate  Angel. 


104  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

Messianic  conceptions  in  East  and  West — The  anointed  Angel  and  the 
anointed  Man— Essenic  expectation  of  an  Angel-Messiah — The  Eastern 
source  of  that  and  similar  doctrines  explains  the  parallels  between  the 
earliest  Buddhistic  and  the  earliest  Christian  records — When  was  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Angel-Messiah  applied  to  Jesus  Christ,  as  it  had  been  ap- 
plied to  Gautama-Buddha  ? 

Messianic  Conceptions  in  East  and  West. 

In  the  most  ancient  parts  of  the  Zendavesta  the  one 
God  Ahura  Mazda  or  Ormnzd  is  designated  as  the  first 
of  seven  angels  or  watchers,  in  conjunction  with  whom 
he  created  the  world  by  his  word.1  But  by  later 
passages  in  the  holy  book  of  the  Iranians  the  honour  of 
the  first  of  seven  angels  is  attributed  to  a  vicar  of  God, 
to  a  mediator,  to  a  divine  messenger  or  angel,  to 
Sraosha.  This  ideal  hero  and  Messiah  of  Iranian  tradi- 
tion was  originally  connected  with  fire,  and  thus,  with 
the  seven  stars  of  the  Pleiades,  from  which  a  divine 
messenger,  the  Matarisvan,  according  to  Indian  tradition, 
brought  down  the  fire,  as  already  pointed  out.  Fire 
was  the  symbol  of  the  spiritual  power,  the  Megh  or 
Meh  of  the  Zendavesta,  the  Mah  or  Maha  in  Sanscrit, 
and  the  Maya  of  Buddhism.  This  divine  messenger  and 
importer  of  fire,  and  of  the  spirit  symbolised  by  fire, 
was  called  Agni,  whose  secret  name  was  Matarisvan,  the 
heavenly  man  from  the  Pleiades  in  Taurus,  the  throne 

1  In  Genesis  Jehovah  is  recorded  to  have  said,  as  is  implied,  to  some 
angels  surrounding  him  :  '  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  like- 
ness.'   According  to  the  Targum,  this  was  said  to  the  Word. 


THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH    OF    BABYLONIANS.  105 

of  the  God  of  seven  stars,  of  Indra,  the  celestial  bull,  as 
of  Osiris,  of  Zeus-Chronos,  of  the  Sibut  of  the  ancient 
Babylonians,  the  Sebaot  or  Sabaoth  of  the  Hebrews, 
and  so  also  of  other  deities.  We  pointed  out  that  Zeus- 
Chronos,  the  creator  of  fire,  and  whose  seven  sons  may 
be  connected  with  the  Pleiades,  in  order  to  frame  the 
world,  according  to  Greek  theogony,  transformed  him- 
self into  Eros,  the  god  of  love,  who  became  the  vicar  of 
Zeus  and  the  framer  of  the  world.  Eros  stands  in  the 
same  relation  to  Zeus  that  Serosh  stands  to  Ormuzd  ;  and 
the  Eros  of  the  Greeks  may  safely  be  identified  with 
the  Serosh  or  Sraosha  of  the  Zendavesta. 

It  thus  becomes  probable  that  the  West-Iranians, 
the  Chaldeans,  Casdim,  or  conquerors  of  Mesopo- 
tamia, in  B.C.  2458,  the  year  of  Shem's  birth,  that 
those  whom  Berosus  calls  Medes — and  who  may  already 
then  have  had  Magi — introduced  into  the  West  the 
doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah.  At  all  events  not  long 
after,  if  not  ever  since  this  Median  conquest  by  the 
Casdim  or  Chaldaeans,  whom  we  regard  as  the  Shemites 
of  Genesis,  the  ancient  Babylonians  knew  of  such  a 
celestial  being  who  distributed  good  among  men,  as  his 
name,  Silik-mulu-dug  (khi  ?)  implies.1  He  is  said  to 
walk  before  or  to  be  the  forerunner,  the  messenger,  of 
Hea,  who  is  provably  the  God  in  the  Pleiades,  like  the 
Sibut  of  the  Babylonians.2  As  was  done  by  the  Agni  of 
the  Indians,  this  Angel-Messiah  of  Mesopotamia  was 
connected  with  the  Arani  or  fire-sticks. 

A  mediatorial  position  similar  to  that  assigned  to 
Serosh  was  held  by  Mithras,  who  was  first  connected 
with  fire  and  then  with  the  sun.  Like  Ormuzd,  Mithras 
is  represented  riding  on  the  bull,  and  Jehovah  is  described 
as  riding  on  the  Cherub,  Kirub  or  bull.  This  bull  is 
certainly  the  constellation  of  Taurus ;  and  the  same 
Mithraic  representation  connects  with  the  bull  a  scor- 

1  Die  Plejaden,  176. 

3  Lenorruaut,  Magic,  translated  and  edited  by  B.  Cooper. 


106  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

pion,  evidently  the  opposite  constellation.  Also  the 
Hebrews  knew  traditions  according  to  which  the  Memra 
or  Word  of  God,  the  Messiah,  was  symbolised  first  by 
fire,  that  is,  by  the  fiery  or  brazen  serpent,  which 
probably  pointed  to  lightning,  and  later  the  Hebrews 
symbolised  the  Word  by  the  sun. 

The  transition  from  fire-symbolism  to  sun-symbolism 
took  place  in  early  historical  times.  The  seven  stages 
of  the  tower  of  Babel  or  Bab-Il  were  probably  com- 
menced by  the  first  king  of  the  Median  dynasty,  who 
ascended  the  throne  in  the  implied  year  of  Shem's  birth, 
when  the  mixed  race  of  conquerors  and  conquered,  of 
Japhetites  and  Hamites,  had  risen  to  political  import- 
ance. This  first  king  of  the  first  historical  monarchy  is 
called  Zoroaster,  by  Berosus,  the  Chaldasan  historian, 
after  the  great  Eastern  reformer,  born  in  the  Aryan 
home.  Eeasons  can  be  given  for  identifying  with  this 
potentate  the  Nimrod-Merodach  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Takmo-Urupis  (Urupa)  of  Iranian  tradition,  the  possessor 
of  the  same  cities  which  are  enumerated  in  Genesis  as 
forming  the  beginning  of  Nimrod's  empire.  These 
seven  stages  of  the  Median  tower  of  Babel,  with  which 
the  seven  walls  may  be  compared  which  the  Medes 
built  for  Dejokes,  were  by  the  finishers  and  restorers  of 
this  tower,  if  not  by  Urukh,  certainly  by  Nebukad- 
nezar,  dedicated  to  the  seven  planets,  or  rather  to  sun, 
moon,  and  fLve  planets.  Excavations  on  the  Birs- 
Nimrud  have  shown  that  the  sun  was  symbolised  by 
the  middle  or  highest  stage,  the  moon  and  the  five 
planets  by  the  other  stages,  which  were  ranged  in 
accordance  with  the  Chaldsean  reckonings  respecting 
the  distances  of  these  bodies  from  the  earth.  Exactly 
the  same  order  has  been  observed  in  the  distribution  of 
the  seven  gates  of  Thebes ;  and  also,  excepting  one  trans- 
position, in  the  symbolical  interpretation  given  by  Philo 
and  Josephus  to  the  candlestick  of  Moses.  Philo  states 
that  the  central  lamp  symbolised  the  sun ;  but  that  ac- 


CHRIST    IN    THE    MIDST    OF   THE    CANDLESTICK.  107 

cording  to  the  deeper  knowledge  or  gnosis  it  symbolised 
the  Word  of  God,  which  the  Seer  at  Patmos  describes 
in  the  Apocalypse  as  the  Messiah  appearing  in  the 
midst  of  the  candlesticks,  and  being  the  first  of  seven 
angels.1 

The  link  thus  established  between  Eastern  and 
Western  symbolism  is  confirmed  by  a  remarkable 
parallel  between  the  seven  priests  of  the  Soma-sacrifice 
in  the  Rig- Veda,  and  Zechariah's  vision  of  the  candle- 
stick. The  central  priest  of  the  former  invoked  the 
Deity.  This  may  be  compared  with  Ezechiel's  vision  of 
the  man  clothed  with  linen,  as  priest,  who  was  sur- 
rounded by  six  other  men,  and  who  performed  the 
office  of  sealing  the  foreheads  of  the  chosen,  a  symbolism 
which  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John  is  directly  connected 
with  the  Messiah.  Already  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
Divine  Wisdom  is  personified  and  apparently  placed 
above  the  angels.  With  this  Messianic  symbolism  of  an 
Angel-Messiah  connected  with  six  other  angels  we  shall 
with  ever  increasing  probability  connect  the  vision  of 
the  nameless  angel,  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  as  one  like  a 
son  of  man.  This  vision  is  recorded  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  a  book  certainly  not  closed  till  after  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Essenic  corporation,  of  which  we  try  to 
prove  that  its  higher  members  transmitted  the  doctrine 
of  the  Angel-Messiah. 

The  Messianic  conceptions  of  the  East,  which  were 
connected  with  the  symbolism  of  the  number  Seven,  and 
referred  to  an  ideal  celestial  hero  and  Messiah,  sooner 
or  later  had  to  make  way  for  the  new  conception  of  a 
celestial  Messiah  in  the  flesh,  of  an  incarnate  Angel- 
Messiah.  It  cannot  be  even  approximative^  deter- 
mined at  what  time  this  change  in  the  Messianic 
conceptions  took  place  in  the  East,  but  Gautama- 
Buddha   was    not    the   first    to    whom   this    Messianic 

1  Ernst  von  Bunsen,   Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes  bei  alien    Nationen,   92- 
104 ;  Die  Plejaden,  231-239. 


108  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

doctrine  was  applied.  Also  the  ancient  Babylonians 
knew  of  an  Angel-Messiah  among  men,  probably  before 
the  time  of  Abraham.  The  naturalised  strangers  among 
the  Israelites,  probably  descendants  of  the  Chaldeans 
among  whom  Abraham  lived,  and  who  in  the  Book 
of  Daniel  are  identified  with  the  Magi,  may  have  trans- 
mitted this  Eastern  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah.  Since 
Daniel  was  instructed  in  the  science  of  the  Chaldasans  or 
Magi,  and  since  the  three  classes  of  the  Eabbi  must  be 
associated  with  the  three  classes  of  the  Magi,  we  expect 
to  find  that  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  composed  after 
the  deportation  to  Babylon  there  will  be  traces  of  this 
Eastern  doctrine  about  the  Angel-Messiah. 

We  must  distinguish  in  the  Old  Testament  the 
earlier  prophecies  and  expectations  of  an  anointed  Man 
from  the  later  prophecies  and  expectations  of  an 
anointed  Angel. 

Already  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amos  had  prophesied, 
probably  in  connection  with  Nathan's  announcement  to 
David,  that  on  a  Davidic  descendant,  '  a  Branch,'  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  would  rest,  thus  implying  that  God 
would  anoint  the  son  of  David  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 
This  future  Anointed  or  Messiah  would  confer  on  Israel 
a  Messianic  mission.  The  Babylonian  Isaiah,  the  un- 
known prophet,  the  so-called  evangelist  and  precursor 
of  the  Gospel-dispensation,  the  author  of  the  Second 
Part  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  had  pointed  to  the  people 
of  Israel  to  whom  the  Messiah  was  to  be  sent,  as  the 
people  to  whom  the  mission  of  the  Servant  of  God  was 
to  be  confided,  as  the  nation  through  which  the  King- 
dom  of  God  was  to  be  set  up  on  earth.  A  representa- 
tive of  this  Messianic  people,  Haggai,  had  called  him- 
self the  messenger,  as  if  pointing  to  a  man  like  Moses, 
chosen  from  among  his  brethren,  whose  coming  Israel 
expected,  as  '  the  messenger  of  the  covenant.'  This 
divinely  inspired  human  messenger,  or  '  Maleach,'  was 
by  Zechariah  again  called  '  the  man  whose  name  is  the 


ISAIAHS    VIRGIN-SOX.  109 

Branch.'  In  another  of  his  visions  Zerubbabel  and 
Joshua  are  probably  referred  to  as  the  two  Anointed 
Ones  or  Messiahs.  It  is  possible  that  the  Prophet 
intended  thereby  to  point  to  the  temporal  and  to  the 
spiritual  ruler  in  Israel  as  the  most  enlightened  organs 
of  Messianic  power  among  the  Messianic  nation. 

In  all  these  passages  the  Messiah  is  described  as  a 
descendant  of  David  who  would  be  anointed  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  become  a  messenger  of  God.  But 
the  word  '  maleach '  has  the  double  meaning  of  messen- 
ger and  of  angel ;  and  since  the  introduction  of  the 
doctrine  of  angels  into  Israel,  probably  coupled  with 
the  new  definitions  for  the  Deity,  Shemeh,  or  Name, 
and  Memra,  or  Word  of  God,  a  passage  in  Isaiah  was 
Messianically  interpreted  which  originally  was  under- 
stood to  refer  either  to  young  Hezekiah  or  to  a  son 
born  to  Isaiah  by  his  wife.  Although  the  Hebrew 
word  for  virgin, '  bethulah,'  is  not  used  in  this  passage,  it 
became  interpreted  as  if  it  were  in  the  text.  By  such 
means  the  doctrine  of  a  virgin-born  Messiah  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Scriptures,  which  doctrine  Clement  of 
Alexandria  designates  as  a  false  doctrine.1 

A  scriptural  basis  was  thus  created  for  the  new 
doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  of  which  there  is  no  trace 
in  any  of  those  Scriptures  of  which  it  can  be  asserted 
that  they  were  composed,  in  the  form  transmitted  to 
us,  before  the  deportation  to  Babylon.  The  erroneous 
passage  in  Isaiah  was  connected  with  the  passage  in 
Genesis  about  the  enmity  between  the  seed  of  Eve  and 
the  seed  of  the  Serpent,  which  enmity  should  lead  to 
the  destruction  of  the  latter  by  the  former.  This 
passage  in  Genesis,  whether  it  existed  or  not  in   the 

1  Strom,  vii.  16 :  '  Many  even  down  to  our  time  regard  Mary,  on  account 
of  the  birth  of  her  child,  as  having  "been  in  the  puerpural  state,  although  she 
was  not.'  He  makes  no  mention  of  the  account  in  Matthew,  transmitted  to 
us,  about  Mary's  virginity  ;  this  he  must  have  done  if,  in  the  second  cen- 
tury, this  passage  had  already  been  inserted  into  the  Gospel  after  Matthew. 


110  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

time  of  Isaiah,  contains  an  unmistakable  reference  to 
the  Eastern  symbolism  of  successive  ideal  heroes  of 
light,  who  conquer  the  ideal  heroes  of  darkness,  and 
who  are  all  symbolised  by  the  serpent,  as  the  Satan  or 
adversary.  This  symbolism  refers,  as  we  showed,  to 
the  figures  on  the  sphere,  where  the  constellation  of 
the  Serpent  and  the  adjoining  one  of  the  Scorpion  are 
placed  near  the  autumn-equinoctial  point,  whilst  the 
heroes  of  light  are  connected  with  the  constellations  of 
the  spring-equinox.  The  position  of  the  sphere  on 
Christmas-day,  on  the  birthday  of  the  sun,  shows  the 
serpent  all  but  touching  and  certainly  aiming  at  the 
heel  of  the  woman,  that  is,  the  figure  of  the  constel- 
lation Virgo.1  This  pre-Christian  symbolism  would 
still  be  historical  even  if  the  existence  of  Gautama' 
could  be  doubted,  whose  symbol  was  the  sun,  and  who 
is  reported  to  have  been  born  on  our  Christmas-day, 
like  Jesus,  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness. 

We  are  thus  led  to  assume,  that  some  time  after 
the  deportation  to  Babylon  the  expectation  of  an  an- 
ointed Man  was  by  some  Jews  changed  into  the  expec- 
tation of  an  anointed  Angel.  Since  after  the  Eeturn 
from  Babylon,  as  we  have  seen,  new  definitions  of  the 
Messiah  were  introduced  into  Jewish  Scriptures,  and 
since  at  that  time  the  existence  of  the  Essenic  corpo- 
ration, a  secret  society  of  Jewish  dissenters,  can  be 
proved,  by  whom  some  non-Hebrew  doctrines  and 
customs  have  been  introduced  into  the  Israelitic  com- 
munity, the  Essenic  origin  of  the  new  doctrine  in 
Israel  of  an  Angel-Messiah  becomes  probable.  We 
shall  now  try  to  prove  that  the  Essenes  were  the  first 
historical  organs  of  such  an  expectation  in  Israel. 

1  In  the  text  of  the  Itala  and  in  that  of  Jerome,  the  woman,  that  is  the 
Virgin,  is  said  to  be  the  bruiter  of  the  serpent,  and  this  entirely  harmonises 
with  the  position  cf  the  sphere  on  the  "birthday  of  the  virgin-born,  which  is 
also  the  birthday  of  the  sun. 


ELKESAI.  Ill 

Essenic  Expectation  of  an  Angel-Messiah. 

Epiphanius,  Bishop  of  Constantia  and  Metropolitan 
of  Cyprus  (a.d.  403)  states,1  that  '  the  Essenes  continue  in 
their  first  position  and  have  not  altered  at  all.'  Speak- 
ing of  the  Ossenes,  who  were  closely  connected  with  the 
former  '  sect,'  he  records  the  tradition  that  they  had 
originated  in  the  regions  of  Nabatasa,  meaning  not  Meso- 
potamia,  but  Arabia-Petrasa ;  and  among  other  places 
he  mentions  the  surrounding  neighbourhood  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  on  the  Eastern  shores  of  the  lake,  not  on  the 
Western,  where,  according  to  Pliny,  were  in  his  time 
the  settlements  of  the  Essenes.  '  A  certain  person 
named  Elxai  joined  them  at  the  time  of  the  Emperor 
Trajan.'  The  Bishop  says,  that  he  was  a  false  prophet, 
and  that  he  wrote  '  a  so-called  prophetical  book,  which 
he  propounded  to  be  according  to  divine  wisdom.'  .  .  . 
'  A  Jew  by  birth,  and  professing  the  Jewish  doctrines, 
he  did  not  Hve  according  to  the  Mosaic  law,  but  intro- 
duced quite  different  things,  and  misled  his  own  sect 
.  .  .  He  joined  the  sect  of  the  Ossenes,  of  which  some 
remnants  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  same  regions  of 
Nabataea  and  Peraaa  towards  Moabitis ;  and  these 
people  are  now  called  Simseans,'  that  is  Sampseans, 
after  the  sun.  Epiphanius  finally  refers  to  their  rejec- 
tion of  '  the  sacrificial  and  altar-services  as  repulsive  to 
the  Deity,'  also  to  their  rejecting  'the  eating  of  animal 
flesh  which  is  common  among  the  Jews,'  and  finally  of 
their  rejecting  '  the  sacrificial  altar  and  the  sacrificial 
fire,'  though  commending  '  purifying  water.' 

According  to  other  traditions,  the  same  Elxai, 
Elkasai  or  Elkesai,  before  he  went  to  Palestine,  arose 
in  the  year  97  a.d.  as  a  religious  teacher  in  the  North- 
east of  Arabia  in  the  regions  of  Wasith  and  Bassrah. 
The  Christian-Gnostic  sect  of  the  Menda3ans  or  Man- 

1  Adv.  Har.   I.   x.   28 ;   ed.  Col.    1682,  and  Adv.   Ossenes,  I.  xix.  39 ; 
comp.  Ginsburg,  The  Essenes. 


112  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

dasans    regarded    him    as   its    originator.       The   latest 
investigations   have   proved,  that  Elkesai  is  identical 
with  an  individual  whom  the  Arabian  writer  En-Nedim 
calls  Scythianus,  and  whose  disciple  had  been  There- 
binthus-Buddha.1     He  seems  to  have  come  from  that 
part    of  Scythia    to   which    the    independent   Parthia 
belonged,    since    Scythia   in  the  time    of    the   Eoman 
empire    bordered    in   the   south   on  India,   as  did  the 
Parthian  kingdom    of  the  Arsakides.       According  to 
Hippolytus,  Elkesai  was  said  to  have  received  the  book 
which  was  called  after  him2  from  the  Parthians  in  the 
city  of  Sera,  the  capital  of  Serica,  according  to  Ptolemy 
the  country  in  the  North-western  part  of  China  and  the 
adjacent  districts  of  Thibet  and  Chinese  Tartary.     Sera 
is  supposed  to  have  been  Singan  on  the  Hoang-ho,  by 
others  Peking.       Already  the  Babylonian  Isaiah  con- 
nected   the    Chinese   with  Israel    by  referring  to   the 
Sinim,   the   Persians    of  the  Septuagint,  which  former 
word   the  highest    authorities   connect  with  Southern 
China,  the  classical  Sinas.     The  connection  of  the  Book 
of    Elkesai   with    Parthia   is    very   important,    as    the 
Parthians  formed  a  bridge  between  the  asceticism  in 
Mesopotamia  and  that  in  India.      We  may  safely  con- 
nect Elkesai,  the  Jew,  with  the  Cassidim  or  Assidasans 
of  Palestine,  and  thus  indirectly  with  the  Median  and 
Magian   Casdim,   the   conquerors  of  Mesopotamia   be- 
fore the  time  of  Abraham,  with  the  Chaldaaans,  with 
the  strangers  in  Israel.3 

The  '  name  '  Elkesai  in  Hebrew  means  '  the  hidden 
power,'  and  thus  referred  to  the  invisible  '  spiritual 
power,'  the  Maga  of  the  Magi  and  the  Maya  of  the 
Buddhists.  With  the  name  Elkesai  may  be  connected 
the   name  of  the  village  Al-kush,  near  Mosul   on  the 

1  Chwohlson,  Die  Sabior  und  der  Sabismus. 

3  Refut.  ix.  8-12  ;  x.  25 ;  comp.  Eus.  H.  E.,  vi.  38  ;  Epiph.  Hcer.  xix. ; 
Theodoret.  Hcer.  fab.  ii.  7. 

3  For  the  transmitted  extracts  from  the  Book  of  Elkesai,  see  Appendix  to 
Ililgenfeld's  Greek  Hennas. 


CAPERNAUM    OR   NAHUM  S   VILLAGE.  113 

Tigris,  to  which  Nahum  the  Elkoshite  is  said  by 
modern  tradition  to  have  been  transported,  and  where 
Josephus  states  that  Nahum  wrote  his  prophecy  about 
the  fall  of  Nineveh.  Sargon  may  have  transported 
him  in  the  year  720,  and  he  may  well  have  lived  to  see 
the  fall  of  Nineveh.  Nahum  would  hardly  have  been 
called  by  Hebrews  the  Elkoshite  after  the  presumable 
place  of  his  captivity  where  his  grave  continued  to  be 
shown  to  Jewish  pilgrims  in  the  middle  ages.  Unless 
this  tradition  be  regarded  as  fictitious,  invented  for 
the  convenience  of  Babylonian  Jews,  there  must 
have  been  two  Elkosh,  for  a  village  of  that  name 
in  Galilee  was  pointed  out  to  Jerome,  then  in  ruins. 
Hitzig  has  identified  this  Elkosh  with  the  original  name 
of  Capernaum,  Kaphar-Nahum,  or  village  of  Nahum. 
Whether  we  assume  the  existence  of  the  two  places  or 
not,  the  name  of  Elkesai,  of  the  Jew  who  rose  as  a  pro- 
phet in  Mesopotamia,  and  who  was  also  accepted  as 
such  by  the  Nazarenes  and  the  Essenes  in  Palestine, 
may  be  connected  with  the  name  of  -the  birth-place,  if 
not  also  of  the  burial-place,  of  the  prophet  Nahum. 

Like  the  secret  books  of  the  Essenic  Therapeuts,  to 
which  reference  will  presently  be  made,  the  Book  of 
Elkesai  was  a  hidden  book,  an  Apocrypha,  which  was 
only  entrusted  to  the  Initiated  and  on  oath,  no  doubt 
on  the  oath  of  secrecy,  like  that  of  the  initiated 
Essenes,  with  whom  Epiphanius  directly  connects  him. 
The  Mendasans  or  Christian-Gnostics  of  Mesopotamia 
derived  their  name  from  Manda  de  hajje,  '  the  word  of 
life.'  This  is  their  secret  name,  whilst  they  give  to 
others  Sobba,  Saba,  Sheba  as  their  name.  Their  'great 
book,'  Sidra  Eabba,  is  also  called  Ginsa,  '  the  treasure.' 
They  possess  a  scripture  on  John  the  Baptist,  who  was 
by  Marco  Polo  found  to  be  highly  revered  among  the 
Sabeans  of  Central  Asia.  The  Mendseans  were  also 
called  '  disciples  of  John ; '  and  '  the  Sabeans  of  the 
marshes'    between   the  Arabian  desert  and  the  lower 


11 4  THE    ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

Euphrates  and  Tigris  are,  by  El-Ulum,  the  composer  of 
the  Fihrist,  called  Mogtasilah,  or '  those  who  wash  (bathe) 
themselves.'  The  principal  rite  of  the  Mendseans  was 
water-baptism,  and  the  same  can  be  proved  to  have 
been  the  case  among  the  Essenes  whom  Elkesai  joined. 
Philo  calls  them  Essai ;  and  as  '  As'chai,  from  s'cha  with 
an  aleph  prefixed,  means  in  Syriac  '  the  bathers,'  those 
who  are  immersed  or  baptised,  so  John  '  the  Baptist ' 
may  be  regarded  as  a  transliteration  of  John  '  the 
Essene.'  We  then  understand  why  the  Essenes  or 
disciples  of  John  acknowledged  Elkesai  as  their  pro- 
phet, who  is  said  to  have  been  the  originator  of  the 
Mendasans,  Sabeans,  or  disciples  of  John  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, whose  name  Mogtasilah  has  the  same  meaning 
as  the  As'chai  of  the  Essenes. 

Even  if  it  could  be  proved  that  any  of  the  Fathers 
ever  suspected  that  Elkesai-Scythianus-Buddha  was  not 
an  historical  individual,  but  that  his  was  a  representa- 
tive name,  the  historical  germ  of  the  tradition  trans- 
mitted by  Hippolytus,  Epiphanius,  and  others,  might 
be  presumed  to  have  been  the  following.  A  Buddhistic 
tradition,  contained  in  a  book  imported  from  China, 
was  promulgated  by  him  in  the  first  place  among  the 
initiated  Mendaeans  of  Mesopotamia,  who  called  them- 
selves disciples  of  John  and  also  Samans  or  Buddhists, 
and  in  the  second  place  among  the  Essenes  of  Palestine. 
The  connection  of  Elkesai-Buddha's  doctrines  with  the 
East  is  proved  beyond  dispute  by  the  recorded  fact, 
that  the  Mendasans,  before  being  received  into  the 
Christian  sect,  had  solemnly  to  denounce  Zoroaster, 
whose  doctrines  were  by  Buddha  more  generally  in- 
troduced into  India.  The  connection  of  this  early 
Christian  Gnosticism  with  the  East,  and  especially  with 
Buddhism,  is  confirmed  by  what  we  know  of  the 
contents  of  the  book  called  after  Elkesai.  It  was 
imported  from  China,  presumably  having  been  intro- 
duced there  by  such    Buddhists  as  had  been  converted 


MEND^EANS    OR   DISCIPLES    OF    JOHN.  115 

to  this  faith  through  the  instrumentality,  direct  or 
indirect,  of  some  of  the  18  Buddhist  missionaries,  who 
in  the  year  B.C.  250  were  sent  to  China  from  India  by 
Asoka  and  by  the  board  for  foreign  missions  which  he 
established.  The  Book  of  Elkesai  was  said  to  have 
been  revealed  by  an  angel,  called  '  the  Son  of  God,' 
that  is,  by  the  Angel-Messiah,  as  whose  incarnation,  we 
may  now  assume,  the  Essenes  or  disciples  of  John  re- 
garded Jesus,  at  least  in  the  year  100  a.d. 

This  Angel-Messiah,  proclaimed  by  Elkesai,  was  by 
him  and  by  the  Mendgeans  mysteriously  connected  with 
a  female  angel,  called  '  the  Holy  Spirit,'  or  Kucha  in  the 
language  of  these  Mesopotamian  Sabeans,  or  disciples 
of  John.  In  Hebrew  the  word  Euach,  signifying  the 
Holy  Ghost,  is  of  feminine  gender ;  and  in  the  Koran, 
that  is,  in  the  tradition  of  the  Hanyfs  or  Sabeans,  to 
whom  Abraham  and  Mahomed  are  said  to  have  be- 
longed, the  Holy  Ghost  is  called  Euh.  The  connection 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  of  Elkesai-Buddha's  doctrine  about 
the  Angel-Messiah,  contained  in  the  book  which  he  is 
said  to  have  brought  from  China  to  Mesopotamia  and 
to  Palestine,  is  all  the  more  remarkable,  since  the  Angel- 
Messiah  or  Buddha  in  Chinese-Buddhist  writings,  trans- 
lated from  the  Sanscrit  about  the  time  of  Elkesai,  is 
therein  recorded  to  have  been  incarnated  by  '  the  Holy 
Ghost.'  Thus  is  confirmed  the  connection  of  Elkesai's 
book  with  China,  and  of  his  Angel-Messiah  with  Buddha, 
Since  Elkesai  was  a  prophet  among  the  Essenes,  these  seem 
to  have  believed  in  an  Angel-Messiah,  and  this  Essenic 
tradition  may  have  been  of  Chinese-Buddhistic  origin. 

The  Elkesaitans,  like  Philo  and  like  the  tradition  in 
the  Pseudo-Clementines,  regarded  the  Angel-Messiah  in 
whom  they  believed,  as  one  of  the  continuous  incar- 
nations of  Christ,  just  as  the  Buddha  of  the  Buddhists 
formed  a  link  in  the  chain  of  incarnations  of  the 
spiritual  power  or  Maya,  which  is  in  angels  and  men. 
Again,  like  the  Buddhists,  they  believed  the  Messiah  to 


HG  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

be  born  of  a  virgin,  although  the  Ebionites,  who  stood 
in  some  connection  with  the  Elkesaitans,  denied  this 
doctrine,  of  which  Clement  of  Alexandria  states,  as  we 
saw,  that  it  was  not  founded  on  fact. 

In  a  probably  not  correctly  transmitted,  because 
contradictory  passage,  Hippolytus  states,  that  according 
to  Elkesai's  assertion,  '  Christ  was  born  a  man  in  the 
same  way  as  common  to  all  (human  beings),  and  that 
(Christ)  was  not  for  the  first  time  (on  earth  when)  born 
of  a  virgin,  but  that  both  previously  and  that  fre- 
quently again  he  had  been  born  and  would  be  born. 
(Christ)  would  thus  appear  and  exist  (among  us  from 
time  to  time)  undergoing  alterations  of  birth,  and 
having  his  soul  transferred  from  body  to  body.'  In 
another  passage  Hippolytus  writes  that  the  Elkesites 
'  acknowledge  that  the  principles  of  the  universe  were 
originated  by  the  Deity.  They  do  not,  however,  confess 
that  there  is  but  one  Christ,  but  that  there  is  one  that 
is  superior  (to  the  rest),  and  that  he  is  transformed 
into  many  bodies  frequently,  and  was  now  in  Jesus. 
And,  in  like  manner,  that  at  one  time  (Christ)  was 
begotten  of  God,  and  at  another  time  became  the 
Spirit,  and  at  another  time  (was  born)  of  a  virgin,  and 
at  another  time  not  so.  And  (they  affirm)  that  like- 
wise this  Jesus  afterwards  was  continually  being  trans- 
fused into  bodies,  and  was  manifested  in  many  (different 
bodies)  at  (different)  times.  And  they  resort  to  incan- 
tations and  baptisms  in  their  confessions  of  elements. 
And  they  occupy  themselves  with  bustling  activity  in 
regard  of  astronomical  and  mathematical  science,  and 
of  the  arts  of  sorcery.  But  (also)  they  allege  them- 
selves to  have  powers  of  prescience.'  l 

Like  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene,  Elkesai  connected 
forgiveness  of  sins  with  a  new  kind  of  baptism,  evidently 
with    the   repeated    baptisms    of  the  Essenes.      These 

1  Translation  by  Rev.  Alex.  Roberts,  in  Antenicene  Christian  Library, 
vol.  vi.  p.  389.     On  Mendseans,  see  Petermann,  Herzog,  I.e. 


DAILY    BAPTISMS.  117 

baptisms    seem    to    have    taken    place    daily,    since    in 
Eabbinical  writings  the  Essenes  or  Chassidim  forming 
'  the  holy  congregation  in  Jerusalem '  are  called,  among 
other   names,  '  hemerobaptists.'     The    baptism    of  the 
Elkesites  was  solemnised  in  the  Name  of  the  Father  and 
of  the  Son,  and  under  invocation  of  seven  witnesses. 
Similarly  to  the  Essenes,  the  Elkesites  rejected  not  only 
the  sacrifices  and  the  partaking  of  meat,  but  also  the 
Pauline  Epistles.     It  may  be  presumed  that  the  latter 
were  rejected  because  of  their  universality,  which  prin- 
ciple was  upheld  by  the  Essenic  Therapeuts  in  Egypt, 
with  whom  we  shall  connect  Paul ;  but  was  opposed  by 
the  separatist  Essenes  of  Palestine,  to  which  Barnabas 
belonged.     As  the  Therapeuts  are  by  Josephus  directly 
connected  with  the  Pythagoragans,  so  Hippolytus  states 
that  some  of  the  tenets  of  Elkesai  were  adopted  from 
those   of  Pythagoras.     Finally,  as  the  Essenes  are  in 
Eabbinical  writings  identified  with  the  Assidgeans,  Chas 
sidim,  or  the  Pious,  so  Elkesai  is  by  Hippolytus  stated 
to  have  called  his  disciples  the  Pious  Ones.    This  bishop 
of  Portus,  opposite  Ostia,  near  Eome,  born  soon  after 
a.d.  250,  testifies  to  the  presence  of  Elkesaitans  in  Eome 
in  his  own  days.     This  is  not  unimportant,  since  the 
Christology  of  the  Pseudo-Clementines,  published  there, 
and  parts  of  which  reach  back  to  the    first  century, 
entirely    corresponds   with    Elkesai's    doctrine    on    the 
continued  incarnations  of  Christ. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  point  out  what  constituted  the 
distinguishing  elements  of  discipline  among  the  '  four 
parties '  of  the  Essenes  mentioned  by  Hippolytus,  and 
which  we  shall  identify  with  the  four  classes  of  Buddhists 
and  Essenes,  and  with  the  four  stages  of  purity  dis- 
tinguished by  the  Eabbis.1  Epiphanius  states  that  the 
Essenes  continued  '  in  their  first  position,  and  have  not 
altered  at  all.'  No  mention  is  made  by  any  writer  of 
the  Messianic  conceptions  of  the  Essenes.     As  Elkesai 

1   Chagiga,  18  a  ;  Frankel,  I.e.  451. 


118  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

became  a  member  of  their  corporation,  and  was  revered 
by  them  as  a  prophet,  the  Essenes,  who  never  altered 
their  creed,  may  be  assumed  to  have  held  before  Elkesai 
and  John  the  Baptist  the  Buddhistic  doctrine  of  the 
An ^ el-Messiah.  This  is  indirectly  confirmed  by  the 
silence  observed  with  regard  to  their  Christology  ;  which 
silence  is  at  once  explained,  if  they  believed  in  an  Angel  - 
Messiah,  for  they  were  by  oath  bound  not  to  reveal 
anything  connected  with  angels. 

Philo's  writings  prove,  as  we  have  seen,  the  proba- 
bility, almost  rising  to  certainty,  that  already  in  his  time 
the  Essenes  did  expect  an  Angel-Messiah  as  one  of  a 
series  of  Divine  incarnations.  Within  about  fifty  years 
after  Philo's  death,  Elkesai  the  Essene  provably  applied 
this  doctrine  to  Jesus,  and  it  was  promulgated  in  Eome 
about  the  same  time,  if  not  earlier,  by  the  Pseudo- 
Clementines.  We  need  not  press  the  point  that  Philo 
was,  by  Clement  of  Alexandria,  called  a  Pythagorsean,1 
and  that  Josephus  connects  the  Pythagoreans  with  the 
Therapeuts,  from  which  it  would  follow  that  Philo  was 
an  Essenic  Therapeut.  In  harmony  with  the  doctrine 
of  Brahmans  and  Buddhists,  and  with  later  Essenic  con- 
ceptions of  the  Elkesaitans,  Philo  indicates  that  Moses 
was  an  organ  of  the  Messianic  power  or  Word  of  God. 
Moses  was  neither  God  nor  man,  but  a  supernatural 
being,  who  had  temporarily  taken  his  abode  in  a  mortal 
nature.  Philo  implies  that  Moses  had  the  power  to 
shake  off  at  will  the  terrestrial  element  of  his  nature, 
with  all  its  exigencies,  and  that  by  fastings  of  forty  days 
he  prepared  himself  for  Divine  revelations,  so  that  he 
was  at  once  priest  and  prophet. 

According  to  Philo,  Moses  was  finally  an  incorporeal 
phantom,  similar  to  Marcion's  description  of  the  Messiah. 
Philo  states  that  Moses  was  raised  to  the  highest  of  all 
beings,  that  is,  '  to  the  heavenly  man,  born  after  the 
image  of  God.'     This  man  from  heaven  had  '  no  part  in 

1  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.,  i.  15. 


THE    COMPANION    OF    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  ]  19 

any  transitory  or  earthlike  essence.'  Not  as  man,  but 
as  spirit,  after  the  death  of  the  body,  Moses  was  per- 
fected. The  Word  of  God,  which  is  in  the  Angel  of 
God  according  to  Exodus,  conies  to  man  as  '  his  angel.' 
This  Word  of  God,  or  Angel-Messiah,  is  by  Philo  also 
called  '  the  Name  '  of  God.  We  have  seen  that  the  ex- 
pressions Memra  and  Adonai  were  not  introduced  into 
Hebrew  Scriptures  before  the  Captivity  or  the  Eeturn. 
Philo  identifies  the  Angel-Messiah  with  the  Shechina 
above  the  Cherubim.  The  Angelic  Word  is  the  external 
image  of  God,  the  pre-mundane  type  of  mankind.  The 
Angel-Messiah  is,  according  to  Philo,  the  companion  of 
the  human  soul,  the  Divine  light  shining  in  the  same, 
the  bread  of  heaven,  the  inseparable  link  of  the  universe, 
the  Angel  of  God  and  God  himself,  his  Firstborn,  the 
Mediator  between  the  living  and  the  dead,  the  Shepherd, 
High  Priest,  and  Advocate,  the  Paraclete  or  Comforter.1 
It  becomes  probable  that  the  Essenes  represented,  if 
they  did  not  introduce,  among  the  Jews,  that  new  Mes- 
sianic conception  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  of  which  there 
is  no  trace  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  which  doctrine 
was  known  to  Parsism,  and  especially  to  Buddhism. 

Parallel  Doctrines  and  Rites  of  Essenes,  Parsists, 
Buddhists,  and  Pythagoreans. 

The  Essenes  form  the  connecting  link  between 
Magian,  Rabbinical,  and  Gnostic  Judaism  on  the  one 
side,  and  Parsism  and  Buddhism  on  the  other.  The 
place  which  can  thus  be  assigned  to  the  Essenes  in  uni- 
versal history  is  confirmed  by  the  following  points  of 
contact  between  the  doctrines  and  customs  of  the  Essenes 
and  those  of  the  Parsists,  Buddhists,  and  Pythagorseans. 

1.  The  so-called  Dualism  of  the  Essenes,  their  system 

1  Comp.  Vita  Mos.  iii.  2 ;  Be  Somn.  i.  6  ;  Be  Incor.  Man.  1 ;  Be  Inst.  ii. 
8  ;  Be  Sacrif.  2 ;  Be  Leg.  All  eg.  i.  12  ;  iii.  73  ;  Be  Profugis ;  Be  Mund.  Opif.', 
Quod  a  Beo  ;  Be  Plant.  Noce  :  Be  Agricid, ;   QuisRer.  Biv.  Hcer.  &c. 


120  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

of  two  worlds,  the  distinction  of  an  immaterial  from  a 
material  world,  is  directly  connected  with  the  most 
ancient  astronomical  symbolism  of  the  East,  with  the 
division  of  the  universe  into  two  parts  by  the  ideal  line 
connecting  the  two  determining  single  stars,  later  con- 
stellations, contemporaneously  rising  and  setting  on 
opposite  points  of  the  horizon.  The  Essenic  principle 
of  separation  of  body  and  soul,  coupled  with  the  assumed 
antagonism  between  spirit  and  flesh,  is  entirely  Bud- 
dhistic, and  was  more  rigidly  maintained  by  the  Thera- 
peuts  than  by  the  Essenes. 

2.  Similar  to  the  four  castes  of  the  Indians,  of  which 
that  of  the  Brahmans  was  the  first,  and  corresponding 
absolutely  with  the  four  grades  of  Buddhists,  the  Essenes, 
like  the  Pharisees,  were  divided  into  '  four  different 
classes.'  Josephus  adds,  '  the  juniors  are  so  much  in- 
ferior to  the  seniors  that  the  latter  must  wash  themselves 
when  they  happen  to  touch  the  former,  as  if  they  had 
been  defiled  by  a  stranger.'  These  four  orders  of  the 
Essenes  seem  to  have  originated  in  the  three  classes  of 
the  Essenes,  that  of  the  candidate,  approacher,  and  the 
associate,  which  correspond  with  the  three  classes  of  the 
Eabbis,  the  scholar,  master,  and  perfect  master.  The 
lowest  Essenic  class — that  of  the  scholar — was  subdi- 
vided into  a  double  noviciate,  of  one  and  of  two  years , 
during  which  time  he  was  an  outsider,  and  was  not 
admitted  to  the  common  meals  or  to  any  office.  This 
connection  is  confirmed  by  the  parallel  between  the 
Eabbinical  and  the  Magian  three  classes,  for  among  the 
Magi  there  was  also  a  double  noviciate.  The  organisa- 
tion of  the  Magi  forms  a  fink  between  the  corresponding 
organisations  of  Essenes  and  of  Buddhists.  The  four 
classes  of  Aryas  or  Eeverends  among  the  Buddhists  are 
the  following: — (a)  The  Srolaapanna,  or  'he  who  has 
reached  the  stream '  which  leads  to  Nirvana ;  (b)  the 
Sakrida-gamin,  or  *  he  who  returns  once,'  who  will  be 

1  Babyl.  Talmud,  Tract  Chagiga,  18  b. 


BUDDHAHOOD    AND    EIJJAI1IIO0D.  121 

born  again  but  once  ;  (c)  the  Anagamin,  '  he  who  does 
not  return,'  but  is  born  again  in  the  heaven  of  the  Gods 
and  of  Brahma;  (d)  the  perfectly  pure  and  sinless 
Arhat.1  These  four  classes  are  directly  connected  with 
the  cardinal  doctrines  of  Buddhism.2  They  correspond 
with  the  four  classes  of  the  Essenes  and  the  four  classes 
of  purity  among  the  Pharisees,  '  which  were  so  marked, 
that  one  who  lived  according  to  the  higher  degree  of 
purity  became  impure  by  touching  one  who  practised  a 
lower  degree.' 3 

These  four  classes  of  Essenes  were  perhaps  subdivided, 
certainly  connected  with  the  Essenic  eight  stages  of 
spiritual  progress,  leading  up  to  the  mystic  state  called 
'  Elijahhood,'  a  name  which  confirms  the  view  that  Elijah 
the  '  tishbite '  or  stranger  belonged,  like  the  Eechabites 
or  Essenes,  to  the  naturalised  strangers  in  Israel.  The 
Buddhists  have  the  '  eightfold  holy  path  '  (Dhammapada), 
eight  spiritual  states  leading  up  to  Buddhahood.  The 
first  state  of  the  Essenes  resulted  from  baptism,  and  it 
seems  to  correspond  with  the  first  Buddhistic  state, 
'  those  who  have  entered  the  (mystic)  stream.'  Patience, 
purity,  and  the  mastery  of  passion  were  aimed  at  by 
both  devotees  in  the  other  stages.  In  the  last,  magical 
powers,  healing  the  sick,  casting  out  evil  spirits,  etc., 
were  supposed  to  be  gained.4  Buddhists  and  Essenes 
seem  to  have  doubled  up  this  eightfold  path  into  four, 
for  some  reason  or  other.  Buddhists  and  Essenes  had 
three  orders  of  ascetics  or  monks,  but  this  classification 
is  distinct  from  the  spiritual  classification. 

3.  On  entering  the  first  stage  of  the  noviciate,  the 

1  Koppen,  Das  Leben  Buddhas,  i.  398/. 

2  If,  according  to  the  monastic  system  of  the  Buddhists,  a  man  could 
attain  at  once  the  position  of  the  Perfected,  even  as  a  layman  (Hardy's 
Eastern  Monachism,  280/.)  this  can  only  have  been  a  comparatively  late 
innovation.     (Against  Lightfoot,  Epistles  of  Paul,  Colossians). 

3  Ginsburg,  I.  c.  21,  where  the  similarity  between  the  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices of  Essenes  and  Pharisees  is  pointed  out. 

4  Comp.  Burnouf,  Introduction  a   Vhistoire  du  Buddhism?  Indian,   290 ; 
with  Ginsburg,  The  Essenes,  13. 


122  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

candidate  for  the  Essenian  order  received  an  axe,  an 
apron,  and  a  white  garment.  The  axe  has  without 
sufficient  reason  been  identified  with  the  Levitical  spade 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  camp.  But  the  axe 
could  not  have  been  used  for  the  purpose  of  throwing 
up  the  soil ;  and  we  know  from  Pliny,  that  the  axe  was 
with  the  Magi  an  instrument  of  magic,  that  is,  that  it 
symbolised  ideas  connected  with  the  supposed  super- 
natural world  and  its  spirits,  the  evil  effects  of  which 
upon  man  were  to  be  warded  off.  The  apron  of  the 
Essenes  may  have  corresponded  with  a  similar  rite  of 
the  Magi,  for  Iranians  and  Indians  had  a  holy  girdle  or 
string,  which  was  a  symbol  of  initiation,  and  probably 
was  connected  with  the  star-belt  of  Mithras.  Equally 
probable  is  the  connection  between  the  Essenic  '  holy 
garments,'  which  had  to  be  laid  aside  before  the  bath, 
according  to  Josephus,  with  the  Sadere  of  the  Parsees, 
a  short  robe  of  cotton,  linen,  or  silk,  which  was  worn 
under  the  girdle.  It  was  without  sleeves,  and  Philo 
describes  the  Essenic  '  cheap  garments  without  sleeves.' x 
The  Magi  and  Pythagoreans  also  wore  white  robes,  at 
least  on  solemn  occasions  ;  and  to  the  Pharisean  candi- 
date was  also  given  a  kind  of  garment,  according 
to  Talmudian  tradition.  If  the  Essene  received  an 
apron  before  he  was  admitted  to  higher  lustrations,  it 
is  not  improbable  that  the  Pharisee  of  higher  orders 
received  a  white  garment  for  solemn  opportunities. 

4.  The  holy  baths  of  the  Essenes,  to  which  the  novi- 
ciates of  higher  grades  were  admitted,  harmonise  well 
with  the  holy  water-symbol  of  the  Ormuzd  religion, 
especially  with  the  prescribed  twenty-nine  days  of  puri- 
fication in  the  water  which  was  ordered  at  the  Magian 
consecration;    and    they    may    be    identified    with    the 

1  Comp.  for  this  and  the  following :  Hilgenfeld,  in  Zeitschriftfiir  wissensch. 
Theologie,  1867,  1871,  and  his  Jiidische  Apocalyptic ;  Plin.  H.  N.,  xxxvi. 
19  (34) ;  comp.  xxx.  2  (5) ;  Philo,  Apol.  Oss.  ii.  633 ;  Eus.  Frcep.  Ev.  viii. 
11  ;  Spiegel's  Avesta  i.  8;  ii.  xxi. 


EASTERN    RITES    OF    ESSENES.  123 

water-baptism  of  the  Buddhists,  who  still  sprinkle  their 
noviciates  with  water.1 

5.  The  solemn  oath  which,  exceptionally,  the  Essene 
had  to  take  on  being  admitted  a  full  member  of  the 
order,  gives  the  same  pre-eminence  to  the  duty  of 
always  speaking  the  truth,  as  this  was  done  with  the 
Iranians,  who,  like  the  Essenes,  forbad,  at  all  events 
discouraged,  swearing  on  other  occasions.2 

6.  At  least  since  the  time  of  Philo,  Pliny,  and 
Josephus,  the  Essenes  had  separate  settlements,  and  the 
same  is  reported  about  the  Magi.3 

7.  The  Essenes  abstained  from  meat  and  wine,  and 
Eubulos  attests  the  same  custom  as  prevailing  among 
the  upper  classes  of  the  Magi  of  later  times.4  Bud- 
dhism orders  laymen  as  well  as  monks,  '  Thou  shalt  not 
kill  what  has  life,  .  .  and  not  drink  fermented  liquors.' 5 

8.  Again,  in  harmony  with  Buddhistic  injunction, 
and  with  the  Iranian  abhorrence  of  bloody  sacrifices, 
the  Essenes  abstained  from  offering  the  bloody  sacrifices 
ordered  in  the  Mosaic  books.  In  a  symbolical  sense 
they  regarded,  as  did  the  Pharisees,  the  table  spread 
for  their  meals,  which  were  accompanied  by  prayers, 
as  their  altar.  Josephus  reports  that  they  offered 
spiritual  sacrifices  '  in  themselves,'  and  Philo  reports, 
that  instead  of  sacrificing  any  animals,  the  Essenes 
endeavoured  '  to  make  their  minds  fit  for  holy  offering.' 
The  spiritual  offering  of  self  to  God  by  prayer  and 
holiness  is  already  enjoined  in  the  Zendavesta  or 
interpreted  revelation.6  Thus  also  the  Septuagint, 
almost  certainly  under  Essenic  influence,  makes  David 
say  that  God  '  does '  not  desire  sacrifice  and  burnt 
offering.     The  words  '  mine  ears  hast  thou  opened  '  are 

1  See  Chapter  II.,  and  Schlagintweit,  I.  c,  95. 

2  Spiegel,  /.  c.  ii.  lv.  f. 

3  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  xxiii.  6. 

4  Plin.  H.  N.,  xi.  42  (97)  ;  coinp.  Bernays'  Theophrastos  on  Piety. 

5  Koppen,  Das  Leben  Buddhas,  i.  334,  444. 

6  Spiegel,  Yaqna,  xx.  1  ;  xiv.  10. 


124  THE    ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

left  out,  no  doubt  because  they  might  be  connected 
with  a  carnal  doctrine  of  inspiration,  according  to 
which  it  was  assumed  that  man  can  be  made  to  hear 
articulated  sounds  uttered  by  invisible  beings.  The 
spirit  of  the  spiritual  and  immaterial  world  could  not 
be  supposed  to  produce  articulated  sounds  audible  to 
man,  according  to  Essenic  principles.  Instead  of  the 
above  words  of  the  Psalmist,  the  text  in  the  Septuagint 
adds,  ;  a  body  hast  thou  prepared  me.'  These  words 
may  be  connected  with  the  essentially  Essenic  doctrine 
transmitted  by  Philo,  that  the  heavenly  Messiah  takes 
his  abode  temporarily  in  mortal  nature,  and  that  the 
Word  of  God  comes  to  man  as  his  angel. 

9.  In  East  and  West  the  chariot  of  the  sun  seems 
to  have  been  the  symbol  of  tradition,  which  latter  had 
originated  in  the  East.  This  may  be  assumed  to  have 
been  the  case  with  the  Buddhists,  who  divided  their 
'  Tradition  from  beyond,'  or  Wisdom  from  above,  in  the 
great  and  in  the  small  chariot.  The  word  '  tradition,'  or 
'merkabah '  of  the  Rabbis,  is  a  compound  of  '  rechab '  the 
chariot,  and  the  verbal  tradition  was  divided  into  two 
classes,  the  history  of  creation  and  that  of  the  chariot. 
Since  the  sun  was  the  centre  of  Essenic  symbolism,  it 
is  not  improbable  that  Essenic  tradition,  which  was 
shrouded  in  mystery,  was  also  symbolised  by  the  solar 
chariot.  The  Essenic  Cassidim,  the  pious,  holy  ones,  or 
saints,  closely  resemble  the  Buddhistic  arhats,  righteous 
ones  or  saints,  who  were  to  become  like  the  shining 
body  of  Brahma,  to  '  enter  into  the  brightness  of  the 
sun,'  the  dwelling-place  of  Abidha  the  sun-god,  that  is, 
the  Nirvana  or  destruction  of  matter,  the  final  resting- 
place  of  the  soul,  and  centre  of  supernatural  light. 

10.  As  the  Zendavesta  recommends  watching  and 
praying  in  the  night,1  so  the  Essenes,  according  to 
Josephus,  never  spoke  about  worldly  matters  before 
sunrise,  but  offered  up,  with  their  faces    towards  the 

1    Vendiddd,  xviii.  15;  iv.  122-126. 


EASTERN    RITES    OF    ESSENES.  125 

East,  as  they  did  also  at  sunset,  '  some  of  the  prayers 
transmitted  by  their  forefathers,  as  if  they  supplicated 
it  to  rise.'  It  has  been  pointed  out,  that  the  prayer 
here  spoken  of  seems  to  have  been  the  national  Hymn 
of  Praise,  which  still  constitutes  a  part  of  the  daily 
Jewish  service.  In  it  the  renewal  of  light  is  implored 
from  God  as  the  Lord  of  the  Universe,  the  Creator  of 
the  rays  of  the  sun  ;  the  (seven  ?)  chiefs  of  his  heavenly 
hosts  are  holy  beings :  '  He  exalts  himself  above  the 
angels,  and  beams  in  glory  upon  his  chariot  throne,' 
and  the  luminaries,  '  rejoicing  in  rising  and  joyous  in 
setting,  perform  with  awe  the  will  of  the  Creator.' 1 

11.  The  three  times  of  daily  prayer  with  the  Essenes 
corresponded  with  the  three  times  of  daily  sun  adora- 
tion prescribed  in  the  Zendavesta.2  The  prayer  at 
noon,  which  the  Jews  seem  not  to  have  added  to  the 
morning  and  evening  prayer  till  after  the  Eeturn  from 
the  Captivity,  coincided  with  the  prayer  at  the  Essenic 
meal  at  noon.  In  accordance  with  regulations  in  the 
Zendavesta,  the  Essenes  bathed  before  their  principal 
meal ;  and  before  as  well  as  after  it  grace  was  said  by 
the  priest.  The  daily  labour  of  the  Essenes  ended  in 
the  morning  at  the  fifth  hour,  when  they  assembled, 
girt  round  with  their  linen  aprons,  and  had  a  baptism 
with  cold  water  before  they  went  to  the  refectory, 
'purified  as  into  a  holy  temple.'  We  may  therefore 
assert  that  the  prayer  before  meal  took  place  exactly 
at  the  sixth  hour,  or  at  noon. 

12.  In  accordance  with  Brahmanic,3  and  probably 
with  Buddhistic  custom,  certainly  with  that  of  the 
Pythagoraaans,  the  Essenic  candidate  for  initiation  bound 
himself  by  solemn  oath  not  to  reveal  to  such  as  were 
not  members  of  this  corporation  the  mysteries  which 

1  Comp.  Ber achat,  9 ;  Giusburg,  /.  c.  69,  70. 

2  Minokh.  357  f. ;  Spiegel,  I.  c.  ii.  li. 

3  Laws  of  Menu,  viii.  110-113;  comp.  Selden,  Be  Jur.  Nat.  ii.  13;  Liv., 
i.  24. 


126  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

would  be  confided  to  him.  But  this  was  only  one  of 
the  many  obligations  laid  upon  him.  Before  he  touches 
the  common  meal,  he  swears  by  most  awful  oaths,  first 
to  fear  God,  and  next  to  exercise  justice  towards  all 
men,  neither  to  wrong  anyone  of  his  own  accord,  nor 
by  the  command  of  others ;  always  to  detest  the  wicked 
and  side  with  the  righteous  ;  ever  to  keep  faith  invio- 
lable with  all  men,  especially  with  those  in  authority, 
for  no  one  comes  to  office  without  the  will  of  God  ;  not 
to  be  proud  of  his  power,  nor  to  outshine  his  subor- 
dinates, either  in  his  garments  or  greater  finery,  if  he 
himself  should  attain  to  office ;  always  to  love  truth 
and  strive  to  reclaim  all  liars  ;  to  keep  his  hands  clear 
from  stealing  and  his  mind  from  unholy  gain ;  not  to 
conceal  anything  from  the  brotherhood,  nor  to  disclose" 
anything  belonging  to  them  to  those  without,  though  it 
were  at  the  hazard  of  his  life.  He  has,  moreover,  to 
swear  not  to  communicate  to  anyone  their  doctrines  in 
any  other  way  than  he  has  received  them ;  to  abstain 
from  robbing  the  commonwealth,  and  equally  to  pre- 
serve the  writings  of  the  society,  and  the  names  of  the 
angels.' l 

Like  the  Essenes,  the  Magi  formed  a  secret  society. 
According  to  Ammianus  Marcellinus,2  the  Magi,  whom 
Herodotus  described  as  forming  a  tribe  among  the 
Medes,  transmitted  only  through  their  descendants  their 
ancestorial  tradition,  which  had  been  purified  by  Darius 
Hystaspes,  that  is,  had  been  more  harmonised  with  the 
religion  of  the  East-Iranians  or  Zoroastrians.  The 
Magi  were  a  religious  caste  or  order,  like  the  Levites 
before  the  Captivity,  after  which  they  ceased  to  exist  as 
a  body,  probably  because  the  Synagogue— which  may 
be  regarded  as  of  Iranian  origin — was  established  with- 
out reference  to  them,  and  because  the  Assidasans  and 
Essenes  formed    an  order  for  carrying  out   purity  of 

1    Josephus,  De  Bell.  ii.  8. 

3    Amm.  Marc,  xxiii.  6;  Spiegel's  Avesta,  ii.  vi. 


EASTERN    RITES    OF    ESSENES.  127 

living,  for  practising  holiness.  Into  this  Essenic  order 
many  Levites  may  well  have  found  a  place  after  the 
Eeturn  from  Babylon,  as  guardians  of  tradition  and 
representatives  of  the  holiness  to  which  the  people  of 
Israel  was  called.  On  this  supposition,  it  would  be 
explained  why  Josephus  states  that  the  uprightness  of 
the  Essenes  is '  not  of  recent  date,  but  has  existed  among 
them  from  times  of  yore.'  Thus  alone  a  meaning  can 
be  given  to  the  statement  of  Philo,  that  the  Essenes, 
Jews  by  birth,  were  a  '  fellowship  of  disciples '  formed 
by  Moses.  Again,  it  is  only  by  connecting  the  Essenes 
with  the  Medo-Chaldseans,  who  lived  as  '  conquerors  '  or 
Casdim  in  Mesopotamia  about  500  years  before  Abra- 
ham's birth,  and  by  thus  connecting  the  Essenes  with 
the  naturalised  stranger  in  Israel,  that  we  can  under- 
stand how  Pliny  the  Elder  (a.d.  23-79)  called  the 
Essenes  a  '  hermitical  society,'  having  existed  '  thou- 
sands of  ages.'  We  saw  that  in  the  time  of  Nimrod- 
Merodach,  probably  the  first  king  of  the  Median  dynasty, 
whom  Berosus  calls  Zoroaster,  the  Medes  may  have 
had  a  corporation,  if  not  tribe,  of  Magi  or  priests,  of 
whom  it  can  be  proved  that  they  formed  a  senate 
under  Arsakes  and  his  successors  since  B.C.  250.  Thus 
the  '  elders  '  of  Israel  formed  the  '  senate  '  of  the  people, 
according  to  the  meaning  given  to  the  presbyters  in 
the  Septuagint,  in  the  Books  of  the  Maccabees  and  of 
Josephus. 

13.  The  Essenic  novice  of  the  first  stage,  which 
lasted  twelve  months,  on  entering  had  to  cast  all  his 
possessions  into  the  common  treasury,  and  this  was  in 
harmony  with  the  attested  custom  of  the  Magi.1  The 
Essenic  and  Magian  and  also  Buddhistic  principle  of 
community  of  goods,  the  renouncing  even  of  all  per- 
sonal property  by  the  Therapeuts,  is  entirely  foreign  to 
the  Mosaic  law  and  to  the  cardinal  preculiarities  of 
Hebrew  character.     Yet  the  ascetic  life  with  which  it 

1  Diog.  Laert.  Procem.  6  (7). 


128  THE    ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

is  connected  is  even  more  ancient  than  Moses,  inas- 
much as  the  Books  bearing  his  name  contain  regula- 
tions for  the  vow  of  the  Nazarite  or  Nazirite  of  days, 
whilst  the  institution  of  Nazarites  for  life  was  probably 
of  at  least  equal  antiquity.  The  great  similarity  be- 
tween the  Jewish  Nazarite  and  the  Indian  hermit  con- 
firms the  foreign  origin  of  this  institution  among  the 
Jews.  It  is  regarded  by  Cyril  of  Alexandria  (a.d.  412- 
444)  as  introduced  from  without,  and  this  view  is  very 
generally  accepted.  Although  the  bishop  must  have 
had  some  reason  for  connecting  the  long  hair  of  the 
Nazarites  with  an  Egyptian  custom,  yet  neither  among 
the  Egyptian  priests  nor  generally  among  male  Egyp- 
tians such  a  custom  prevailed  in  the  time  of  Herodotus. 
The  father  of  history  states,  that  the  Egyptians  '  from 
early  childhood  have  the  head  shaved,'  and  that  the 
Egyptian  priests  shave  the  head.  This,  as  well  as  the 
shaving  of  the  beard,  was  a  general  custom  among  the 
male  population.  It  has  been  shown,  however,  that 
the  ancient  customs  among  the  Egyptians  to  anoint  the 
guest's  artificial  hair  with  oil,  and  the  priest's  touching 
the  king  with  his  finger  as  a  symbol  of  his  having  been 
anointed,  point  to  rites  imported  from  a  foreign  country. 
They  especially  point  to  India,  from  whence  the  original 
Egyptians  seem  to  have  come,  and  where  the  rite  of 
cutting  off  the  hair  from  the  entire  body  never  existed.1 
The  Brahmanic  priest,  although  wearing  the  tonsure, 
was  ordered  to  let  his  hair  grow  long  on  his  head, 
beard,  and  body,  and  he  was  anointed  by  the  holy  oil. 
Contrary  to  this  Brahmanic  rite,  the  Buddhist  novice 
was  enjoined  'not  to  ornament  himself  with  flowers  and 
ribbands,  nor  to  use  scents,  nor  to  anoint  himself.' 
Again,  the  Buddhist  Sramana  or  tamer  of  the  senses, 
therefore,  even  the  Buddhist  of  lowest  order,  was  not 
allowed  to  possess  anything.2 

1   Wilkinson,  Ancient  Egyptians,  ii.  327  f. 
3  JLoppen,  /.  c.  i.  3S4,  366. 


EASTERN    RITES   OF   ESSENES.  ]og 

The  Essenic  rule  which  enjoined  community  of 
goods  and  forbad  the  use  of  the  anointing  oil  can  only 
be  connected  with  the  corresponding  rules  amono- 
Buddhists  and  among  the  Magi.  Even  the  more  an- 
cient East-Iranian  tradition  in  the  Zendavesta,  where 
the  Magi  are  not  mentioned,  contains  regulations  about 
the  cutting  of  the  hair  and  nails,  and  removing  them 
from  '  the  pure  men,'  which  exclude  the  hairs  of  the 
East-Iranians  ever  having  been  anointed  with  oil.  Of  such 
practice  there  is  no  trace  in  the  Zendavesta.  According 
to  Herodotus,  and  probably  according  to  the  monuments, 
the  Assyrians  always  wore  the  hair  long ;  and  though 
nothing  is  said  about  their  ends  being  cut,  it  may  be 
assumed  that  the  Zoroastrian  order  continued  to  be 
respected  by  them.  The  servants  of  Ormuzd,  and  so 
also  the  Hebrew  priests,  were  to  cut  off  the  ends  of 
their  hairs,  to  poll  them.  But  Xenophon  states,  that 
the  Medes  of  the  upper  classes,  and  therefore  also  the 
Magi,  wore  wigs.1  We  may  therefore  assert,  that  the 
Magi  never  anointed  themselves,  which  the  Buddhists 
were  forbidden  to  do.  Contrary  to  the  Hebrew  prac- 
tice and  order,  the  Essenes  abstained  from  the  use  of 
the  anointing  oil,  which  the  Jews  generally  did  only  as 
a  sign  of  mourning.  This  Essenic  regulation,  like  that 
referring  to  the  anti-Jewish  principle  of  community  of 
goods,  cannot  possibly  be  separated  from,  and  must  be 
connected  with,  the  parallel  Magian  and  Buddhistic 
customs.  The  Pythagorasan  use  of  ointment  may  be 
connected  with  the  Brahmanic  rite. 

14.  Love  of  truth  was  inculcated  by  Essaism,  as  by 
Parsism  and  Buddhism,  and  was  promised  by  an  oath.2 
Josephus  states  of  the  Essenes,  that  'every  word  witli 
them  is  of  more  force  than  an  oath.'     He  adds:  'They 

1  Vendidad,  xvii.  10  f. ;  Herod. i.  195:  Lev.  xxi.6;  Ez.  xliv  20;    Xeu 
Cyrop.,  i.  :>,,  2. 

2  Spiegel,  l.r.,  ii.  lv.  Every  member  of  the  royal  Kshatriya  line  had  tp 
take  an  oath  ih.it  he  would  'scorn  the  lie.'  (Beal,  Romantic  History  of 
Buddha,  222. 1  '     ' 


130  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

avoid  taking  an  oath,  and  regard  it  as  worse  than  per- 
jury ;  for  they  say,  that  he  who  is  not  believed  without 
calling  on  God  to  witness,  is  already  condemned  of 
falsehood.'1 

15.  Prediction  of  future  events  was  practised  by  the 
Magi,  Essenes,  and  Pythagoreans. 

16.  Some  of  the  Essenes  and  all  Therapeuts  ab- 
stained by  their  own  free  will  from  marriage,  which 
Buddhism  forbad  for  monks  only,2  whilst  to  all  Parsists 
celibacy  was  an  abomination.  The  Pythagoreans  must 
have  allowed  matrimony,  as  Pythagoras  was  married. 

17.  The  equality  of  all  men  was  a  fundamental 
Essenic  and  Buddhistic  principle,  which  excluded 
slavery  and  made  *  all  free  and  mutually  serving  each 
other,'  as  Philo  states  about  the  Essenes.  The  Bud- 
dhistic principle  of  universality,  and  of  regard  for  the 
religions  of  others,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  implicitly 
followed  by  the  Essenes  during  the  rising  of  the 
Maccabees,  if  we  identify  the  allies  of  the  latter,  the 
Assideans,  with  the  Essenes.  But  they  could  not  in 
such  trying  times  have  kept  their  promise  to  'detest 
the  wicked  and  side  with  the  righteous,'  without  risking 
their  lives  in  the  defence  of  what  they  regarded  as 
most  holy,  the  Mosaic  law  as  interpreted  by  their  order. 
Yet  Philo  could  attest,  that  the  Essenic  body  was  a 
peace  society,  which  discouraged  war  as  much  as 
possible,  and  anything  which  might  lead  to  it. 

18.  Although  the  Essenes,  according  to  Josephus, 
'  did  nothing  without  the  injunctions  of  their  overseers,' 
and  had  all  things  in  common,  yet  they  were  at  liberty 
to  help  the  needy,  to  show  mercy,  help  the  deserving 
when  in  want,  and  to  give  food  to  the  hungry.  With 
the  Buddhists  the  first  of  their  six  cardinal  virtues  is  to 
have  compassion.3 

1  Clement  of  Alexandria  says  the  same  about  the  true  Gnostic.  Strom . 
vii.  8. 

2  Koppen,  /.  c.  i.  352.  3  Kbppen,  I.  c.  i.  373. 


EASTERN   RITES   OF   ESSENES.  131 

19.  The  figurative  or  allegorical  interpretation  of 
symbols  is  by  Philo  spoken  of  as  practised  by  the 
Essenes,  who  '  philosophised  on  most  things  in  symbols, 
according  to  the  ancient  zeal.'  They  worked  out  them- 
selves '  the  ethical  part '  of  their  Scriptures,  '  using  as 
their  guides  the  laws  which  their  fathers  inherited,  and 
which  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  human 
mind  to  devise  without  Divine  inspiration  ;  herein  they 
instruct  themselves  at  all  times,  but  more  especially  on 
the  seventh  day.'  As  old  and  young  then  assembled  in 
the  synagogues,  the  interpreter  or  Targumist,  '  one  of 
those  who  have  most  experience,'  expounded  what  the 
reader  had  read,  and  in  so  doing  passed  over  '  that 
which  is  riot  generally  known,'  that  is,  the  secret  tra- 
dition with  which  the  elder  members  of  the  society 
were  alone  acquainted.  From  this  it  follows,  that  the 
deeper  sense  or  gnosis,  the  allegorical  meaning  of  the 
Scriptures,  was  entrusted  only  to  the  Initiated,  that  is, 
to  the  full  members.  Writing  about  the  Therapeuts, 
Philo  states,  as  reported  by  Eusebius,  that  '  as  they  are 
engaged  with  the  sacred  Scriptures,  they  reason  and 
comment  upon  them,  explaining  the  philosophy  of  their 
country  in  an  allegorical  manner  ;  for  they  consider  the 
verbal  interpretation  as  signs  indicative  of  a  secret 
sense  communicated  in  obscure  intimations.  They  have 
also  commentaries  of  ancient  men,  who  as  the  founders 
of  the  sect,  have  left  many  monuments  of  their  doctrine 
in  allegorical  representations,  which  they  use  as  certain 
models,  imitating  the  manner  of  the  original  institution.' 

A  similar  practice  seems  to  have  prevailed  among 
the  Magi,  inasmuch  as,  according  to  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus,  they  transmitted  their  ancestorial  tradition 
exclusively  through  the  members  of  their  society,  a 
privilege  to  which  it  may  safely  be  assumed  the  novi- 
ciates of  both  stages  were  not  entitled.  Since  marriage 
as  a  rule  was  discarded  by  the  Essenes,  they  could  not 
found  their  order  upon  natural  descent;   and  the  lattei 

K  2 


132  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

thus  differed  from  the  Magian  institution.  Also  the 
Buddhistic  division  of  their  tradition  into  a  great  and 
small  conveyance,  like  the  division  of  the  Eabbinical 
tradition,  seems  to  point  to  a  gradual  initiation  in  the 
mysteries  of  transmitted  lore. 

20.  Like  the  Magi,  some  of  the  Essenes  were  physi- 
cians ;  and  the  Essenes  in  Egypt  called  themselves 
Therapeutse,  probably  not  only  as  healers  of  the  body, 
but  also  of  the  mind  and  the  soul.  The  Essenes  '  in- 
vestigated medical  roots  and  the  property  of  minerals 
for  the  cure  of  distempers.'  According  to  the  Talmud, 
as  well  as  to  Byzantine  and  Arabian  writers,  already 
Solomon  was  held  to  have  written  works  on  miraculous 
cures  and  driving  out  evil  spirits.  The  physicians 
amono-  the  Essenes  may  have  formed  a  special  class  ; 
and,  as  there  were  Theosophists  among  them,  these 
may  have  formed  a  class  also  ;  and  a  third  class  may 
have  been  formed  by  exorcists,  or  those  who  drove  out 
evil  spirits.  Certain  it  is,  that  the  Magi  in  the  time 
of  Daniel  were  divided  in  these  three  classes,  as  was 
also  the  very  ancient  Chaldsean  book  on  Magic. 

21.  From  the  East,  whether  through  the  Magi,  or 
Buddhists,  or  Pythagoraeans,  or  Egyptians,  the  Essenes 
must  have  derived  their  doctrine  about  the  immortality 
of  the  souls.  The  Essenes  held,  that  the  souls  '  come 
out  of  the  most  subtle  ether,'  that  is,  from  the  supposed 
immaterial  world,  and  that  they  are  enveloped  by  their 
bodies  as  in  a  prison-house,  till,  released  from  servitude, 
they  '  rejoice  and  mount  upwards.'  Thus  it  is  implied, 
that  they  return  to  the  immaterial  world  of  spirits, 
where  matter  is  annihilated,  that  is,  to  the  sun,  as  to 
the  Nirvana  of  Buddhists. 

22.  The  presumable  Essenic  expectation  of  an  Angel- 
Messiah  is  that  of  the  Iranians  and  Buddhists,  and  it  was 
kept  secret,  as  were  many  important  Essenic  doctrines, 
especially  those  connected  with  angels.  Like  the  Buddhists 
and  Hindus,  the  Essenes  must  have  believed  and  taught 


EASTERN    KITES    OF    ESSENES.  138 

their  Initiated  that  salvation  is  by  faith,  and  that  faith 
comes  by  the  Maya  or  Brahm,  the  Spirit  or  Word  of 
God,  of  which  the  Angel-Messiah  is  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed incarnate  messenger. 

23.  As  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  Eastern  tradi- 
tion about  the  two  antagonistic  worlds  of  spirit  and 
matter,  the  Essenes  introduced  into  Judaism  the  doctrine 
of  '  everlasting  punishment '  for  the  wicked  after  death. 
As  Buddhists  taught  that  no  reasonable  being  denied  by 
matter,  which  is  the  cause  of  sin,  can  enter  Nirvana, 
that  is,  as  we  have  suggested,  the  sun,  where  matter  is 
annihilated,  so  the  Essenes  taught,  according  to  Josephus, 
the  doctrine  of  rewards  for  the  good,  and  'never-ceasing 
punishments '  for  the  wicked,  souls. 

24.  The  Essenic  Therapeuts  of  Egypt,  who  have  been 
more  influenced  directly  or  indirectly  by  Buddhism  than 
the  Essenes  of  Palestine,  had,  in  common  with  the  latter, 
the  following  doctrines  and  customs : — The  distinction 
of  a  spiritual  and  immaterial  world  from  a  material 
world,  or  the  dualism  of  the  East,  connected  with  ever- 
lasting rewards  and  eternal  punishments ;  the  corporative 
system ;  a  high  regard  for  the  transmitted  writings  of 
their  order,  by  the  side  of  Mosaic  writings  ;  the  highest 
reverence  for  Moses,  the  real  and  deeper  but  hidden 
meaning  of  whose  doctrines  they  brought  to  light  by  a 
figurative  interpretation  of  the  words,  '  by  mystic  ex- 
pressions in  allegories.'  Both  communities  maintained 
the  Jewish-Essenic  doctrine  of  inspiration  as  regards  the 
Mosaic  Scriptures,  if  not  the  Prophets ;  but  they  recog- 
nised a  relatively  higher  stage  of  revelation  or  gnosis, 
of  which  the  books  of  their  own  order  were  the  recog- 
nised  exponents :  this  Divine  revelation  they  regarded 
as  continuous  in  mankind,  so  that  their  collection  of 
Scriptures  was  never  acknowledged  as  closed  ; *  Essenes 

1  'The  mysteries  which  were  hid  till  the  time  of  the  Apostles, and  were 
delivered  by  them  as  they  received  from  the  Lord,  and,  concealed  in  the 
Old  Testament,  were   manifested  to  the  Saints,  (to    the   Pious,  Saints,  or 


134  THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

and  Therapeuts  had  in  common  the  anti-hierarchical 
character  of  their  organisation ;  abstention  from  meat 
and  wine,  probably  also  of  animal  sacrifices  in  the 
Temple,  for  which  reason  they  were  excluded  from  the 
Temple-service  ;  their  dress  ;  the  abolition  of  slavery ; 
the  adoration  of  the  Deity  through  the  symbol  of  the 
sun ;  the  strict  keeping  of  the  Sabbath,  when  only  the 
Therapeuts  exceptionally  anointed  their  bodies. 

The  Essenic  principle  of  community  of  goods  is  by 
the  Therapeuts  heightened  to  entire  absence  of  pro- 
perty ;  thus  also  the  self-chosen  occasional  avoidance  of 
marriage  by  Essenes  is  with  the  Therapeuts  a  rigidly 
enforced  rule,  in  harmony  with  the  Buddhistic  prohibi- 
tion of  marriage  among  the  priests.  The  Therapeuts 
maintained  more  rigidly  than  the  Essenes  the  principle 
of  enmity  between  the  spirit  and  the  flesh.  Also,  they 
were  more  severe  in  their  separation  than  the  Essenes, 
for  they  lived  in  huts,  like  hermits,  and  thus  laid  the 
foundation  to  the  convent-life  in  the  West,  which  the 
Buddhists  had  established  in  the  East.  The  asceticism 
of  the  Therapeuts  was  extended  over  the  entire  day,  so 
that  they  did  not  meet  for  a  common  meal,  which  they 
solemnised  with  increased  solemnity  in  the  night,  and 
which  resembled  in  various  points  the  meal  of  the  Essenes 
at  noon.  Every  kind  of  manual  labour  was  abolished 
by  the  increased  asceticism  of  the  Therapeuts,  who  led 
a  life  of  contemplation  and  prayer  without  work,  closely 
resembling  the  hermits  among  the  Brahmans  and  Bud- 
dhists. More  rigidly  than  with  the  Essenes,  it  was  the 
aim  of  the  Therapeuts,  by  the  greatest  possible  separa- 
tion from  what  is  sensual,  to  come  in  contact  with  the 
influences  of  the  unseen,  spiritual,  and  immaterial  world, 
above  all  with  the  Angel-Messiah,  and  thus  to  be  pre- 

Chassidim,  the  Essenes).'  Cleui.  Alex.  Strom,  v.  10.  He  describes  the  Gnosis 
as  '  the  apprehension  of  things  present,  future,  and  past.'  Strom,  vi.  7.  The 
Gnostic  receives 'a  sort  of  quality  akin  to  the  Lord  himself,  in  order  to 
assimilation  to  God.'     Strom,  vi.  17. 


EASTERN    RITES    OF    ESSEXES.  135 

pared  for  the  setting  up  of  a  spiritual  kingdom  of  heaven 
on  earth.  The  Therapeuts  wished,  as  Philo  states,  to 
be  '  citizens  of  heaven  and  of  the  world,'  to  live  '  in  the 
soul  alone '  whilst  living  in  the  flesh. 

25.  The  fundamental  principle  of  Essenes  and  Thera- 
peuts, to  strive  after  purity  in  thought,  word,  and  deed, 
though  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  development  of  the 
Mosaic  law,  was  taught  by  Zoroaster  and  acknowledged 
by  the  Magi.  Like  the  distinction  of  a  spiritual  from  a 
material  world,  with  which  the  doctrines  of  angels  and 
spirits,  and  thus  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  were  directly 
connected,  the  principles  of  a  higher  morality  as  prac- 
tised by  the  Essenes,  and  their  submission  to  an  all- 
governing  and  predestinating  Supreme  Will,  must  be 
connected  with  those  Iranian  and  Buddhistic  concep- 
tions with  which  the  Israelites  during  the  Captivity  had 
come  into  contact.  Only  by  the  introduction  of  this 
foreign  or  non-Hebrew  element,  traceable  to  the  Essenes, 
it  is  possible  to  explain  the  non-Mosaic  and  anti- 
Hebraistic  community  of  goods,  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
the  prohibition  of  oaths  except  the  oath  of  initiation, 
their  all  but  general  preference  for  the  unmarried  state, 
the  abstention  from  meat  and  wine  and  from  the 
anointing  oil,  excepting  the  Sabbathical  rite  of  the 
Therapeuts,  their  abhorrence  of  bloody  sacrifices,  and, 
finally,  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah. 

Conclusion. 

The  conscious  incorporation  of  new  or  of  newly 
promulgated  doctrines,  and  of  new  rites,  into  Judaism 
by  the  Essenes  can  no  longer  be  denied.1  During  cen- 
turies before  and  after  the  existence  of  the  Essenic 
order  the  land  of  the  Medo-Chaldaeans  or  Magi,  to  whom 

1  Canon  and  Professor  Lightfoot  admits  the  introduction  of  Persian,  but 
not  of  Buddhistic  rites  by  the  Essenes,  and  denies  the  conscious  incorpora- 
tion of  this  foreign  element  into  Judaism. 


136  THE    ANGEL-MESSIAH. 

the  Essenes  stood  in  close  relationship,  was  directly 
connected  with  India  by  the  independent  Parthian 
kingdom,  and  nearly  five  centuries  before  Abraham 
these  Medo-Clialdaeans  commenced  their  rule  over  Meso- 
potamia. The  similarity  between  the  asceticism  on  the 
Euphrates  and  that  on  the  Ganges  confirms  the  early 
connection  of  these  countries.  The  asceticism  of- the 
Magi  and  Essenes  is  unknown  to  the  Zendavesta  and  to 
the  Veda,  although  in  the  former  a  material  from  an 
immaterial  or  purely  spiritual  world  is  distinguished. 
The  mixed  Iranian  and  non-Iranian  character  of  the 
Median  race  explains  the  strange  mixture  of  Iranian 
and  Indian  doctrines  among  the  Medo-Chaldaeans  with 
their  Magi,  and  among  the  Essenes,  whom  we  may 
ethnically  connect  with  the  former. 

The  connection  between  Buddhistic  and  Essenic  doc- 
trines and  customs  is  proved,  and  to  the  former  belonged 
the  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  of  which  there  is  no 
trace  in  Hebrew  Scriptures  which  can  be  asserted  to  have 
been  written  before  the  deportation  to  Babylon,  nor  in 
the  first  three  Gospels.  With  the  uninterrupted  chain  of 
Buddhistic  writings  in  China,  translated  from  the  Sanscrit, 
and  dating  '  from  at  least  B.C.  100  to  a.d.  600,'  coupled 
with  the  probably  pre-Christian  representations  of  sub- 
jects treated  by  Buddhistic  legends,  we  may  connect  what 
Buddhistic  legends  in  pre-Christian  times  taught  at  least 
about  the  birth  of  the  Angel-Messiah.  Some  of  the  other 
recorded  traits  of  the  life  of  Gautama-Buddha  as  the 
incarnate  Angel-Messiah  cannot  at  present  be  proved 
to  date  from  the  pre-Christian  period. 

It  is  absolutely  certain  that  there  is  no  reliable  trace 
of  the  doctrine  of  an  Angel-Messiah  in  Jewish  Scriptures 
till  after  the  deportation  to  Babylon;  that  the  Essenic 
order,  preceded   by  the  Assidasans   and  Rechabites  or 

1  Exort.  6;  Strom,  i.  L3,  15,  21,  25,  26;  ii.   5,  18;  v.  5,   10,   11,   U; 
vii.  2-3. 

8  Beai,  Dhammapada,  Intr,  11. 


BUDDHISM    AND    ESSAISM.  137 

Kenites,  was  established  not  later  than  B.C.  143  ;  that 
before  this  time  Buddhistic  records  about  the  birth 
of  the  Angel-Messiah  existed  in  the  East,  and  that 
Essenic  tradition  must  be  connected  with  the  East.  The 
probability  thus  shown,  that  the  Essenes  believed  in  and 
expected  an  Angel-Messiah,  though  they  were  bound 
not  to  divulge  anything  connected  with  Angels,  can  be 
almost  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  fact  by  what  has  been 
transmitted  to  us  about  John  the  Baptist. 

The  question  arises  :  At  what  time  and  under  what 
circumstances  was  the  Eastern  and  Essenic  doctrine  of 
the  Angel-Messiah  applied  to  Jesus  Christ  as  it  had 
been  applied  about  500  years  earlier  to  Gautama- 
Buddha,  who,  like  Jesus  Christ,  was  said  to  have  been 
born  on  Christmas-day?  Did  John  the  Baptist,  the 
'  bather '  or  Ashai,  belong  to  the  Assidaeans,  Essai,  or 
Essenes ;  and  what  were  the  relations  between  the 
doctrines  of  John  and  those  of  Jesus  ? 


138  JESUS    AM)    THE    ESSENES, 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

JESUS   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

The  stranger  in  Israel — Jesus  and  the  Essenes — Jesus  and  the  hidden  wis- 
dom— Jesus  and  the  sacrifice — Jesus  the  Messiah — Conclusion. 

The  Stranger  in  Israel. 

Jesus  is  shown  by  Biblical  records  to  have  been  a  descen- 
dant of  David,  whose  ancestor  was  Caleb  the  Kenezite 
or  non-Hebrew.     Who  was  the  stranger  in  Israel  ? 

The  first  inhabitants  of  the  West  seem  to  have  come 
from  the  East  on  two  main  roads.  The  earliest  historical 
stream  of  Orientalists  consisted  of  black  or  Hamitic 
tribes,  who  wandered  from  the  land  watered  by  the  Gihon- 
Oxns,  from  the  land  of  Ciish,  the  later  Turan,  to  India, 
and  thence,  in  course  of  time,  by  Arabia,  Egypt,  Libya, 
and  Canaan,  to  Mesopotamia,  where  they  built  Babylon. 
After  a  long  and  indefinite  time  the  black  inhabitants 
of  Mesopotamia  and  adjoining  countries  were  subju- 
gated by  a  once  unmixed  white  race  of  Japhetites,  by 
the  Medes  of  Berosus,  whose  conquest  took  place 
B.C.  2458,  and  who  had  journeyed  from  the  East,  origi- 
nally from  the  Aryan  home,  the  Eden  of  Genesis,  and 
had  come  across  Central  Asia  by  the  high  table-land  of 
Iran.  These  conquerors  called  themselves  in  their  own 
language  Casdim,  later  Kaldi  or  Chaldeans,  and  they 
gave  to  the  conquered  plain  between  the  two  rivers  the 
name  of  Shinar.  This  Medo-Chaldaean  dynasty  in  Baby- 
lon ruled  there  from  B.C.  2458-2234,  and  its  first  king 
was  called  Zoroaster,  after  the  great  reformer  of  the 
East-Iranians,  but  he    also  received   the  title  Nimrod, 


JESUS,    DAVID,    AND    CALEB.  130 

formed  after  the  Iranian  deity  Merodach.  The  priests 
of  these  Medo-Chaldaeans  were  sooner  or  later  called 
Magi,  and  thus  is  explained  the  identification  of  Magi 
and  of  Chaldaeans  in  the  Book  of  Daniel. 

The  subjugation  of  Hamites  by  Japhetites  in  the 
lowland  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  brought  about  that 
ethnic  combination  with  which  in  Genesis  the  name  of 
Shem  has  been  connected.  Two  years  after  the  Flood 
he  was  a  hundred  years  old,  he  was  born  ninety-eight 
years  before  the  Flood.  For  this  event  Hebrew  tradition, 
according  to  Censorinus  and  Varro,  designated  the  year 
B.C.  2360,  so  that  Shem's  birth  took  place  in  B.C.  2458, 
in  the  year  of  the  Medo-Chaldaean  conquest  of  the 
country  in  which  the  first  Semitic  settlements  were 
situated,  beginning  with  Elam  on  the  Persian  Gulf.  It 
is  thus  implied,  that  the  birth  of  Shem  must  be  ethni- 
cally explained  by  the  combination  of  Japhetites  and 
Hamites,  who  had  come  from  the  East  and  had  amalga- 
mated in  the  land  of  the  so-called  settlements  of  Shem's 
descendants.  Since  the  conquest  of  Mesopotamia  or 
the  birth  of  Shem,  Japliet  did  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem, 
and  Canaan,  the  Hamite,  was  his  servant.  From  the 
commencement  of  this  so-called  Semitic  period,  and 
during  all  phases  of  Israel's  history,  Hebrews  lived 
together  with  non-Hebrews,  principally  Chaldeans.  The 
non-Hebrew  was  '  the  stranger  '  in  Israel,  the  naturalised 
foreigner  within  the  gate,  who  seems  to  have  obtained 
full  rites  of  citizenship,  as  is  shown  by  the  narratives 
of  Doeg  the  Edomite,  Uriah  the  Hittite,  Araunah  the 
Jebusite,  Zelek  the  Ammonite,  and  Itmah  the  Moabite, 
though  the  Ammonites  and  Moabites  are  in  Deuteronomy 
forbidden  to  enter  the  congregation  of  the  Lord. 

Abraham  bowed  before  Melchizedec,the  non-Hebrew, 
and  Moses  did  all  what  Jethro  the  Kenite,  the  priest  of 
Jehovah,  told  him.  The  sons  of  Jethro,  the  Kenites  of 
Midian,  were  invited  by  Moses  to  join,  and  did  join 
under  Ilobab,  the  Hebrews,  who  left  Egypt  as  a  '  mixed 


UO  JESUS   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

multitude.'  They  settled  with  Judah  in  Arad,  and  they 
were  certainly  connected  with,  if  not  the  ancestors  of, 
the  Eechabites,  who  could  say  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah, 
that  they  had  always  been  strangers  in  Israel,  and  whom 
the  Prophet  designated  as  patterns  of  obedience.  Ac- 
cording to  the  ethnic  scheme  here  followed,  the  Hebrew 
belonged  to  the  Hamitic  or  Indian  stream,  he  was  a 
descendant  of  the  builders  of  Babylon,  as  was  Abraham, 
whose  fathers  had  lived,  more  than  450  years  before  his 
birth,  in  subjection  to  the  conquerors  or  Chaldaeans, 
after  whom  his  native  city  was  called  Ur  of  the  Casdim 
or  Chaldees.  The  stranger  in  Israel  was  accordingly 
the  Medo-Chaldasan  or  Iranian,  related  to  the  Magi,  with 
whom  Daniel  was  connected,  and  whose  overseer  he 
became. 

The  Israelites  of  both  races  recognised  the  Mosaic 
law,  the  provisions  of  which  for  the  stranger,  later 
called  proselyte  or  convert,  were  certainly  either  in 
part  added  later  or  not  carried  out.  This  was  the  case, 
as  observed,  with  regard  to  his  not  being  allowed  to 
hold  land.  Signs  are  not  wanting  which  seem  to  imply, 
that  with  the  dualism  of  race  in  Israel  was  connected 
a  dualism  of  ecclesiastical  and  of  political  institutions, 
that  the  two  lines  of  Aaronites  and  the  political  parties 
of  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  originated  in  the  compound 
race  of  Indian  Hamites  and  Iranian  Japhetites  in  Israel. 
After  the  Eeturn  from  Babylon,  the  non-Hebrew  element 
seems  for  a  time  to  have  formed  the  majority  in  Israel, 
inasmuch  as  the  men  of  Judah  may  be  assumed  to  have 
been  partly  descendants  of  those  Kenites  who  settled  with 
that  tribe  in  the  time  of  Joshua,  and  who  were  also  ex- 
ported to  Babylon  according  to  the  superscription  of  the 
71st  Psalm,  as  transmitted  by  the  Septuagint.  Again, 
Zerubbabel  was  a  descendant  of  David,  who  was  a  direct 
descendant  of  Caleb  the  Kenezite.  It  certainly  was  not 
till  after  the  Eeturn  that  the  synagogues  were  gene- 
rally introduced,  the  Iranian  origin  of  which  is  made 


NON-HEBREW    FEMALE    ANCESTORS    OF   JESUS.  J  11 

highly  probable  by  the  parallel  between  the  three 
classes  of  Eabbis  and  those  of  the  Magi  or  Chaldeans, 
and  by  the  absence  of  the  Sadducees  from  the  synagogue, 
which  the  strangers  visited.  At  the  commencement  of 
the  Christian  era,  and  probably  ever  since  the  time  of 
Ezra  and  of  the  Maccabees,  a  spirit  of  rigid  exclusive- 
ness  was  established,  which  would  go  some  way  to 
explain,  even  if  taken  by  itself,  the  Sadducean  persecu- 
tion of  a  teacher  in  the  synagogue,  of  a  stranger  in 
Israel,  who  was  a  descendant  from  David. 

The  descent  of  David  from  Caleb  the  Kenezite,  and 
thus  from  non-Hebrews,  points  to  a  connection  of  Jesus 
with  the  strangers  in  Israel.     This  is  confirmed  by  the 
significative  fact,  that  the  four  female  ancestors  of  Jesus 
who  are  mentioned  in  the  genealogies  of  Matthew  are 
all  non-Hebrews.     Although  the  descent  of  Thamar  is 
not  specified  in  the  Bible,  Philo  calls  her  '  a  stranger,' x 
and  with  this  statement  the  Biblical  narrative  can  be 
easily  harmonised  by  enlarging  the  literal  sense  of  it  to 
a  figurative  one.      To  do  this  we    have   also  another 
reason,    inasmuch    as    the    credibility    of   the    account 
rendered  about  Thamar  mil  be  enhanced  by  the  alle- 
gorical  interpretation    of   the    text.      Already   in    the 
history  of  Abraham,  as  recorded  in  Genesis,  we  find 
traits  which  lead  us  to  assume  that  international  rela- 
tions are  sometimes  described   as   family  connections. 
It  is  probable  that  Abraham's  concubines  represented 
non-Hebrew  nationalities,  and    that   the    narratives  in 
question   refer  not  to    marriages  between    two  indivi- 
duals, but  to  relations  between  the  Hebrew  and  some 
non-Hebrew  nations. 

Were  we  to  interpret  the  story  of  Thamar  and 
Judah  literally,  the  only  possible  argument  would  be, 
that  the  most  unparalleled  immorality  was  necessary  to 
ensure  the  descent  of  Messiah's  ancestor  from  Judah. 
Of  him  Jacob  is  recorded  to  have  prophesied  that  lie 

1  De  NobU.  r>. 


142  JESUS   AND    THE    ESSEXES. 

would  be  praised  by  his  brethren,  that  these  should 
bow  before  him,  that  the  sceptre  should  not  depart 
from  Judah,  and  that  unto  him  should  be  the  gather- 
ing, or  rather  the  obedience,  of  the  people.  This  state 
of  things  is  to  endure  either  until  he  (his  tribe)  come 
to  Shiloh,  or  until  Shiloh  comes,  that  is,  '  rest.'  In 
order  to  interpret  this  passage  Messianically,  we  must 
accept  the  latter  possible  reading,  and  assume  Shiloh 
to  mean,  not  a  locality,  but  a  person,  the  man  of  peace 
or  rest.  On  this  supposition  the  prophecy  might  be 
regarded  as  fulfilled  by  Solomon,  a  descendant  of 
Judah,  whose  name  signifies  'rest'  or  'peace.'  But  in 
order  to  make  this  passage  refer  to  a  future  son  of 
David  and  Son  of  God,  to  the  Prince  of  Peace,  to  whom 
the  passage  in  Isaiah  was  assumed  to  point,  the  Shiloh- 
Messiah  must  be  identified  with  a  man  anointed  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  not  with  an  incarnate  angel,  of  which  con- 
ception there  is  no  trace  in  the  Old  Testament.  Taken 
in  its  literal  sense  and  Messianically  interpreted,  the 
narrative  about  Judah  and  Thamar  would  lead  to  the 
revolting  conclusion  that  Pharez,  the  offspring  of  that 
illicit  intercourse,  was  the  only  link  between  a  Divine 
promise  and  its  fulfilment.1 

The  only  escape  from  this  dilemma  is  offered  by  the 
assumption  that,  in  this  passage,  as  certainly  in  others,2 
the  matrimonial  metaphor  is  used,  that  the  recorded 
intercourse  between  Judah  and  Thamar  the  stranger, 
was  by  the  Initiated  in  the  mysteries  of  Scripture  known 
to  refer  to  the  recorded  cohabitation  of  the  tribe  Judah 
and  of  the  non-Hebrew  Kenites,  who  settled  with  them 
in  the  wilderness  of  Arad,  and  formed  an  inseparable 
tie  with  Judah.  These  Kenites  had  previously  dwelt 
in  the  City  of  Palms,  in  Thamar,  later  called  Engedi, 

T  It  is  remarkable  that  Caleb,  descendant  of  Phares,  is  excluded  from 
i  the  whoredom,'  or  falling  away  of  the  Israelites  in  the  Desert.  (Num. 
xiv.  33.) 

**  Judges ii.  17  ;  Ps.  cvi.  39. 


ER   OR    GER    THE    STRANGER.  143 

and  before  they  accompanied  Judah  to  Arad,  the  king 
of  Arad  '  the  Kenite '  ruled  there.  The  Kenites,  like 
the  Eechabites,  the  strangers,  were  descendants  of 
Hemath  or  Hamath  ;  and  of  the  Eechabites,  it  is  prov- 
able that  they  went  with  the  Hebrews  to  Babylon, 
whilst  after  the  Eeturn  they,  like  many  Levites,  seem  to 
have  merged  into  the  order  of  Assidasans  and  Essenes. 
Even  if  we  literally  interpret  the  transmitted  connection 
of  Judah  and  Thamar,  the  name  Er  or  Ger,  that  is, 
6  stranger,'  given  to  the  first-born  of  Judah  and  of  the 
Canaanite  Bath-Shuah,  indirectly  confirms  the  foreign 
descent  of  Thamar,  and  renders  more  probable  the 
ethnic  interpretation  of  her  so-called  marriage  with 
Judah.  The  same  foreign  element  may  be  assumed  in 
the  compound  names  of  Ger,  such  as  Gershon,  Ger- 
gasites  or  Girgashites,  and  Gerizim. 

The  second  female  ancestor  of  Jesus  is  Eahab  or 
Eachab,  that  is,  Eechab,  and  thus  refers  to  the  Kenites. 
Eahab  of  Jericho,  whom  Josephus  describes  only  as  an 
innkeeper,  was  probably  connected  with  the  Kenites  in 
Israel  before  she  became  the  wife  of  Salmon  or  Salma, 
the  father  of  Bethlehem,  and  Boaz,  the  husband  of 
Ruth.  The  Targum  of  Jerusalem  calls  the  strangers  in 
Israel  the  Salmaites  ;  and  in  the  Books  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  '  the  children  of  Jericho  '  and  '  the  men  of 
Jericho  '  are  mentioned  separately,  as  if  representing  a 
non-Hebrew  element.  Eahab  seems  to  have  been  called 
a  harlot,  because  in  the  time  of  Ezra,  when  our  Hebrew 
text  was  revised  and  partly  re-written,  to  marry  a  non- 
Hebrew  woman  was  regarded  as  equally  abominable 
as  to  marry  a  harlot.  It  is  probable,  at  least  pos- 
sible, that  the  matrimonial  metaphor  was  not  before 
this  time  introduced  into  such  narratives  as  those  of 
Judah  and  Thamar,  and  of  Eahab. 

The  third  female  ancestor  of  Jesus,  Euth  the 
Moabite,  was  a  descendant  of  Caleb  the  Kenezite,  and 
connected  with  Eahab  the  Eechabite  or  Kenite. 


144  JESUS    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

The  fourth  woman  who  is  mentioned  in  the  genea- 
logies as  an  ancestor  of  Jesus  was  '  the  wife  of  Uriah  ' 
the  Hittite,  that  is,  Bathsheba,  which  name  in  a  modi- 
fied form  is  Bathshua.  She  was  granddaughter  of 
Ahitophel,  who  was  born  in  the  hill-country  of  Judah, 
where  the  Kenites  dwelt,  and  daughter  of  Eliam  or 
Ammiel,  which  was  the  name  of  four  non-Hebrews. 
The  name  Bathshua,  or  daughter  of  Shua,  connects  the 
wife  of  the  Hittite  with  the  Canaanite  or  Kenite  name 
Shua,  the  wife  of  Judah,  whose  son  was  called  Er  or 
Ger,  the  stranger.  Also  one  of  the  sons  of  Abraham 
and  of  his  concubine  Keturah  (Ket,  Cheta,  or  Hittite  of 
Ur  ?)  was  called  Shua,  which  name,  with  the  divine 
prefix,  formed  Jeho-Shua,  Joshua,  or  Jesus. 

It  is  absolutely  certain  that  all  four  female  ances- 
tors of  Jesus  were  non-Hebrews,  and  that,  if  we  inter- 
pret their  narratives  literally,  every  one  of  them  had 
become  separated  from  her  first  love,  for  one  reason  or 
other.  Whether  these  narratives  be  regarded  as  not 
literally  true,  but  as  dictated  by  the  Hebrew  spirit  of 
exclusiveness  which  ruled  in  the  time  of  Ezra  and  at 
the  time  to  which  the  genealogies  of  the  New  Testament 
refer,  or  whether  they  be  accepted  as  strictly  historical, 
the  non-Hebrew  element  among  the  direct  ancestors  of 
Jesus  is  proved.  This  non-Hebrew  element  in  Israel 
can  be  connected  principally  with  the  Medo-Chalda3ans, 
with  the  nation  which  ruled  in  Mesopotamia  before 
Abraham  was  born,  and  which  transmitted  that  Chal- 
damn  or  Magian  wisdom  in  which  Daniel  was  instructed. 
Speaking  broadly,  we  may  say  that  this  was  the  tra- 
dition of  the  Zenda vesta.  The  connection  of  Jesus 
with  the  Synagogue,  and  of  the  latter  with  Magian 
tradition,  confirms  the  non-Hebrew  descent  of  Jesus. 

Jesus  and  the  Essenes. 
It  has  been  rendered  highly  probable,  if  not  certain, 
that    John   the  Ashai,  the   bather    or  Baptist,  has  the 


JOHN    THE    BAPTIST    OR    ESSENE.  1  j:, 

same  meaning  as  John  the  Essai,  as  Philo  calls  the 
Essene.  If  the  disciples  of  John  were  Essenes,  the  re- 
markable fact  is  explained,  that  the  Essenes,  forming 
the  third  party  in  Israel,  are  never  mentioned  by  that 
name  in  the  New  Testament.  On  this  supposition,  we 
may  also  explain  the  still  more  astounding,  though 
only  implied,  identification  of  Essenes  and  Christians 
by  Josephus,  who  was  for  a  time  himself  an  Essene  if 
Banus  was  one.  John  resembled  the  Essenes  by  his 
life  in  secluded  places — we  never  hear  of  him  in  cities, 
not  even  in  Jerusalem  during  the  feasts — by  his  mode 
of  living  and  his  dress,  and  by  his  water-baptism.  We 
may  assume,  that  John,  in  accordance  with  the  recorded 
announcement  of  his  birth,  was  a  Nazarite  for  life, 
which  all  Essenes  were,  and  that,  like  these,  he  never 
visited  the  Temple,  nor  offered  bloody  sacrifices.  In 
harmony  with  all  we  know  about  the  Essenes,  John 
never  referred  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  pointed  to  One 
who  should  come  after  him,  and  who  would  baptize 
'  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,'  that  is,  with  fire  as 
the  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Contrary  to  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  but  in  harmony  with  Essenic  practice,  John 
made  the  change  of  mind  dependent  on  outward  acts, 
on  ceremonies  ;  he  was  a  mystic  ritualist,  as  all  Essenes 
were.  In  the  Acts  we  are  told  that  Paul  met  disciples 
of  John  who  had  not  even  heard  that  there  is  a 
Holy  Ghost.  Also  Apollos  of  Alexandria,  a  disciple 
of  John,  though  zealously  preaching  about  Jesus,  did 
not  proclaim  him  as  the  Christ,  as  Him  whom  God 
had  anointed  '  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power,' 
until  Aquila  and  his  wife  had  instructed  the  Alexan- 
drian, and  possibly  the  Therapeutic  novice,  in  the 
more  perfect,  in  the  deeper  knowledge  or  gnosis, 
known  only  to  the  initiated  Therapeuts  near  Alexandria 
and  elsewhere. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  John  and  his 
disciples  connected  with  the  Angel-Messiah  whom  they 

L 


146  JESUS   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

expected,  must  have  been  unknown  to  the  uninitiated 
members  of  the  Essenic  corporation,  as  it  was  unknown 
to  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  or  the  Essene,  and  it  must 
have  formed  part  of  the  secret  tradition  of  the  Essenes. 
For  in  the  Mishna  there  is  a  passage  which  can  only  be 
referred  to  the  Essenes,  and  where  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  connected  with  the  grades  of  initiation,  and 
with  the  future  Elias,  the  forerunner  of  the  Messiah. 
6  The  zeal  for  the  law  and  the  Pharisaic  purity  lead 
from  grade  to  grade  to  the  Hassi-douth  (piety),  whence 
one  is  led  to  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  will  finally 
bring  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  through  Elias,  the 
forerunner  of  the  Messiah.'1  With  this  Essenic  expec- 
tation of  Elias  as  organ  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  as  fore- 
runner of  the  Messiah  must  be  connected  the  fact,  that 
John  the  Baptist  dressed  like  Elijah  and  lived  in  the 
region  of  his  chief  activity.  John  is  in  the  Gospel 
after  Luke  designated,  on  the  authority  of  the  angel 
announcing  his  birth,  as  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  as  going  before  the  Lord  '  in  the  spirit  and  power 
of  Elias,'  whilst  he  himself  pointed  to  the  future  Mes- 
sianic baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  power  of 
God  was  to  be  brought  from  heaven  by  the  Messiah, 
whom  therefore  John  must  have  regarded  as  an  incar- 
nate Angel. 

John  regarded  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
mankind,  that  is,  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  as  future ; 
Jesus  regarded  both  as  '  already  come.'  If  he  and 
some  of  his  contemporaries  among  the  Jews  drove  out 
devils  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  this  was  a  sign  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  had  already  come.  If  John  knew  that, 
then  he  believed  in  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah  ;  but 
this  he  certainly  did  not  whilst  in  prison  and  shortly 
before  his  death.  Sayings  of  Jesus  have  been  preserved 
which  prove  to  demonstration,  when  connected  with 
the  above  facts,  that  John  did  not  regard  Jesus  as  the 

1  Mish.  Sotahy  end  ;  Aboda  Sara,  xx.  (5,  &c. 


JOHN   AND    THE    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    HOLY    GHOST.       147 

Messiah,  and  that  Jesus  did  not  regard  John  as  belong- 
ing to  his  kingdom  :  '  He  that  is  least  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  greater  than  he.'  The  reason  of  this  is 
implied  by  another  saying  of  Jesus,  hitherto  left  in  the 
dark.  The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  having  been  in 
the  Old  Testament  referred  to  as  exceptionally  present 
in  few  individuals,  the  coming  of  this  Divine  power  to 
mankind  was  prophesied  as  something  future.  In  this 
sense  we  may  interpret  the  words :  '  All  the  Prophets 
and  the  law  prophesied  until  John,'  him  included,  for 
even  if  taken  to  be  Elias  he  would  only  be  announcing 
the  coming  of  the  Messiah  with  the  Holy  Spirit  from 
above.  But  '  from  the  days  of  John  the  Baptist  until 
now  the  kingdom  of  heaven '  is  no  longer  held  by  all  to 
be  future,  for  some  enter  in,  though  they  can  only  do 
so  '  by  force,'  since  it  '  suffereth  violence,'  that  is,  it  was 
violently  closed  by  the  '  blind  leaders  of  the  blind,'  by 
'  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites,'  who  '  shut  up 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  against  men,'  neither  going  in 
themselves,  nor  'suffering  them  that  are  entering  to 
go  in.  i 

Thus  openly  and  directly  did  Jesus  oppose  the 
teaching  of  John  the  Baptist  about  the  Spirit  of  God 
not  yet  being  present  in  man.  He  would  have  opposed 
this  his  doctrine  even  in  case  that  John  the  Ashai  or 
the  Essai  or  Essene,  had  not  expected  the  Messiah  or 
'  Him  that  should  come,'  like  the  Tathagata  of  the 
Buddhists,  to  be  the  incarnation  of  an  Angel,  who 
brought  down  the  Spirit  of  God.  These  two  doctrines 
stand  in  connection  with  each  other;  and  the  more 
probable  it  can  be  made,  that  John  was  an  Essene,  the 
more  certain  will  it  be,  that  Jesus  opposed  also  the 
Messianic  expectation  of  John  the  Baptist  or  the  Essene. 
Jesus  did  not  regard  himself  as  the  Angel-Messiah ;  of 
which  doctrine  there  is  no  proof  in  the  Old  Testament, 
or  in  the  first  three  Gospels,  but  which  was  an  Essenic, 

1  Matt.  xi.  11-14;  xxiii.  13. 


i- 


148  JESUS   AXD    THE    ESSENES. 

tradition,  as  the  preceding  arguments  seem  irresistibly 
to  prove. 

Not  only  John's  ascetic  life,  his  rites,  as  far  as  we 
know  them,  and  his  doctrines  were  Essenic,  but  among 
the  incidents  transmitted  to  us  of  his  early  life,  there 
are  some  which  contain  corroborative  evidence  that  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Essenic  body,  whose  settlements, 
according  to  the  elder  Pliny,  were  on  the  west  coast  of 
the  Dead  Sea.  Here  had  been  the  settlements  of  the 
Kenites  or  Eechabites,  who  started  from  Thamar- 
Engedi  for  Arad,  and  whom  we  have  sufficient  reason 
to  connect  with  the  later  Essenes.  It  was  in  this 
region  to  the  west  of  the  Dead  Sea,  in  the  hill  country 
of  Judah,  and  in  a  city  called  Juda  or  Jutta,  that  the 
son  of  Zacharias  and  Elisabeth  was  born.  Probably 
this  was  the  city  Juta  or  Jutta,  five  miles  south  of 
Hebron,  as  first  suggested  by  Eeland.  It  has  escaped 
attention,  that,  like  Hebron,  Jutta  is  mentioned  in  the 
Book  of  Joshua  as  one  of  the  cities  which  were  given  to 
'  the  children  of  Aaron,'  from  which  Zacharias  as  well 
as  Elisabeth  were  descended.  Accordingly  John  was 
born  near  the  region  where  the  Essenic  settlements  were. 
The  Essenes  were  in  the  habit  of  adopting  children, 
and  a  child  of  double  Aaronic  descent,  whose  aged 
parents  may  have  died  before  it  attained  to  manhood, 
would  be  particularly  welcomed  by  the  Jewish  ascetics. 

Again,  it  was  in  this  '  wilderness '  of  Judaea,  that 
'  the  word  of  God  '  came  unto  John,  whether  he  began 
to  baptize  there  or  not.  But  as  his  progress  was  from 
south  to  north,  it  is  highly  probable  that  he  did  first 
baptize  in  the  southern  district  to  the  west  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  where  the  Essenic  settlements  were.  For,  instead 
of  '  Bethabara  beyond  Jordan,'  the  original  reading  may 
have  been  '  Beth-Arabah  beyond  Jordan,'  that  is,  '  the 
house  of  the  desert,' — a  locality  which  may  be  identified 
with  the  city  of  that  name,  mentioned  by  Joshua,  as 
situated  '  in  the  wilderness,'  that  is,  in  '  the  Arabah  '  or 


BETI1ABARAH    OK    BETHARABAH.  149 

el-Ghor,  in  that  part  of  the  sunken  valley  which  lies  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  hill  country  to  the  west  of  the 
Dead  Sea.  Any  place  situated  like  Betharabah  in  this 
part  of  the  sunken  valley  between  the  northern  end 
and  the  cliffs  ten  miles  south  of  the  southern  end  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  could  be  designated  as  '  beyond  Jordan ; ' 
whilst  the  deep  sunken  valley,  called  '  the  Arabah,'  in- 
cluded in  its  wider  sense  the  entire  course  of  the  Jordan 
from  Mount  Hermon.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to 
give  to  the  place  a  more  restricted  meaning ;  and  the 
designation  '  beyond  Jordan '  is  best  explained  if  we 
assume  that  Betharabah  was  meant,  whilst  it  would  have 
no  meaning  if  Bethany  had  been  the  name  of  the  place, 
which  Origen  found  in  the  oldest  manuscripts,  although 
he  decided  for  Bethabarah.1 

We  find,  therefore,  that  John  the  Baptist  was  born, 
received  his  Divine  call,  and  began  to  baptize  in  the 
region  to  the  west  of  the  Dead  Sea,  where  the  Essenes 
had  their  settlements ;  that  like  these  he  lived  in  secluded 
localities,  avoiding  the  cities,  and  apparently  not  even 
going  up  to  Jerusalem  for  the  feast ;  that  his  dress  and 
mode  of  living  resembled  that  of  the  Essenes,  especially 
of  hermits  like  Banus,  with  whom  Josephus  spent  three 
years,  probably  the  three  years  of  the  Essenic  noviciate ; 
that,  like  the  Essenes,  John  was  a  Nazarite  for  life,  and 
probably  avoided  the  Temple-services  and  sacrifices ; 
that  he  did  not  refer  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  like  the  Essenes, 
of  whom  we  may  assume  that  they  could  not  do  so  be- 
fore the  coming  of  the  Angel-Messiah, whom  they  expected, 
and  of  whom  John  said,  that  he  would  baptize  with  the 


1  We  cannot  accept,  with  Mr.  Conder,  for  the  place  intended,  the  ford  or 
Abarah  near  Beisan,  the  ancient  Bethshean,  called  Scythopolis,  in  the  Jordan 
valley,  about  twelve  miles  south  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee.  Near  this  place 
was,  according  to  Eusebius  and  Jerome,  the  Aenon  or  Enon,  the  place  of 
springs,  near  Salim,  where,  on  the  west  of  the  Jordan,  the  last  baptisms  of 
John  took  place,  and  where  Van  de  Velde  has  found  a  Mussulman  tomb, 
called  by  the  Arabs  Sheyhh  Salim,  the  city  having-  disappeared,  like  the  town 
Antipatris,  now  Kefr-Saba.     (Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  l  Salim.') 


150  JESUS   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

Holy  Ghost  ;  finally.,  that  John  the  Baptist  is  only 
another  name  for  John  the  Ashai  or  bather,  from 
which  the  name  of  the  Essai  may  now  be  safely  assumed 
to  have  been  derived.  Considering  these  many  and 
either  certain  or  probable  proofs  of  contact,  and  that 
there  is  absolutely  nothing  known  about  John  the 
Baptist  which  could  be  designated  as  non-Essenic,  his 
connection  with  the  Essenes  can  no  longer  be  doubted. 

Under  the  circumstances  in  which  the  earliest  records 
about  the  life  and  doctrines  of  Jesus  were  composed,  it 
must  be  regarded  as  a  difficult  if  not  an  impossible  task 
to  distinguish  the  doctrines  which  he  really  taught  from 
those  which  to  a  certain  extent,  and  especially  in  the 
Gospel  after  John,  have  been  attributed  to  him  under 
Essenic  influence,  as  we  shall  try  to  prove.  The  Essenic 
Christians  must  have  been  as  desirous  to  claim  the  au- 
thority of  Jesus  for  their  views,  as  they  had  been  zealous 
in  developing  their  system  from  the  Mosaic  Scriptures  by 
an  allegorical  interpretation  of  the  same.  Yet  the  prin- 
cipal points  in  which  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  was  opposed 
to  that  of  the  Essenes,  and  those  which  were  common  to 
both,  can  be  ascertained  with  sufficient  accuracy. 

It  was  not  only  the  Essenic  expectation  of  an  Angel- 
Messiah,  who  would  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
bring  to  earth  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  against  which 
Jesus  protested,  whilst  excluding  John  the  Baptist  from 
the  kingdom  of  God  which  had  already  come  :  Jesus 
protested  also  against  the  extreme  rigidness  of  Sabbath 
observance,  which  was  a  characteristic  custom  of  the 
Essenes.  Also,  his  views  about  the  import  of  all  outward 
acts  connected  with  religion  were  much  more  free. 
Again,  the  principle  of  universality,  which  Jesus  enun- 
ciated, implied  a  protest  against  the  Essenic  avoidance  of 
strangers,  which  was  likewise  a  characteristic  feature 
among  Essenes  in  Palestine,  though  not  in  Egypt.  The 
asceticism  of  the  Essenes,  their  strict  rules  about  eating 
and  drinking,  their  discouraging  marriage,  and  forbid- 


NON-ESSENIC    DOCTRINES    OF    JESUS.  151 

ding  the  anointing  of  the  head  with  oil,  were  not 
sanctioned  by  Jesus.1  Whilst  in  all  these  points  Jesus 
did  not  follow  Essenic  doctrines  or  customs,  he  strongly 
approved  and  followed  the  principle  of  the  Essenes  to 
avoid  the  Temple-service  with  its  bloody  sacrifices,  the 
Essenic  simplicity  in  speech  and  demeanour,  their  prohi- 
bition of  oaths  and  of  slavery,  respect  of  poverty,  perhaps 
community  of  goods,  and  certainly  the  system  of  initia- 
tion in  the  mysteries  of  tradition. 

The  question  already  here  suggests  itself,  why  many 
Essenes  accepted  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah  whom,  as 
we  tried  to  show,  they  expected,  although  he  did  not 
belong  to  their  party.  Our  answer  will  be,  that  the  death 
of  Jesus  at  the  time  of  the  Passover,  and  his  reported 
resurrection  '  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,' 
that  is,  as  the  allegorising  Essenes  explained,  both  as 
antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb  and  of  the  Paschal  omer, 
removed  in  their  minds  all  doubt  on  the  subject.  It 
was  under  the  effect  of  these  doubts  that  John  sent  the 
embassy  to  Jesus,  whether  he  be  '  He  that  should  come,' 
the  Tathagatta  of  Buddhists,  the  Angel-Messiah,  who 
would  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  answer  of 
Jesus  did  not  confirm  such  expectations. 

Jesus  and  the  Hidden  Wisdom. 

The  Sadducees  had  forbidden  the  promulgation  of 
the  ancestral  tradition  of  the  Pharisees.  The  name  of 
the  latter  can  be  derived  from  Pharis  or  Persia,  and,  if 
so,  would  connect  the  Pharisees,  like  Jesus,  with  the 
non-Hebrews  or  strangers  in  Israel,  to  which  dualism  of 
race  in  Israel  the  name  of  Pharez  points.  From  this  it 
would  follow,  that  the  '  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,'  which  Jesus,  as  is  recorded  in  the  first  three 
Gospels,  made  known  to  his  disciples  when  '  alone '  with 

1  Matt.    xii.    1-12;    John   ix.   14,   16;    Matt.  xix.   12;    vi.   17;    Luke 
vii.  46. 


152  JESUS    AXJ)    THE    ESSEX ES. 

them,  that  his  speaking  '  in  darkness,'  his  whisperings 
in  the  ear,  may  have  referred  to  a  traditional  '  key  of 
knowledge '  which  the  spiritual  rulers  of  Israel  had  '  taken 
away '  from  the  people.  This  connection  between  the 
ancestral  tradition  of  the  Pharisees  and  the  secret  tradi- 
tion, deeper  knowledge  or  gnosis,  taught  by  Jesus  to  his 
disciples,  and  distinguished  from  his  popular  form  of 
teaching  by  parables  only,  is  confirmed  by  Jesus  recog- 
nising publicly  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  as  sitting  in 
Moses'  seat,  as  if  as  organs  of  a  verbal  tradition  trans- 
mitted by  elders.  '  All  therefore  whatsoever  they  bid 
you  observe,  that  observe  and  do ;  but  do  not  ye  after 
their  works  :  for  they  say,  and  do  not.'  Again,  Jesus, 
the  Scribes,  and  the  Pharisees  went  to  the  synagogue; 
the  Sadducees  not.  Jesus  has  certainly  recognised  the 
authority  of  a  traditional  verbal  law  by  the  side  of  the 
written  law ;  and  we  may  assume  that  he  regarded  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  former  as  forming  canons 
or  rules  of  interpretation  for  the  latter. 

Jesus  believed  that  God  reveals  himself  in  all  ages 
through  his  Spirit,  that  the  history  of  mankind  is  the 
history  of  a  continuity  of  Divine  influences.  The  reve- 
lations in  ages  past  had  been  made  known  to  the  people 
through  symbols,  which  were  differently  explained  by 
the  Initiated  and  the  Uninitiated.  Jesus  knew  that  the 
medium  of  these  revelations  was  the  enlightened  con- 
science  of  man,  as  the  organ  of  Divine  manifestations. 
He  regarded  it  as  his  mission  to  point  out  to  every  man 
'  the  engrafted  Word  '  which  is  able  to  save  the  soul ;  to 
convince  men  '  by  their  conscience,'  at  a  time  when  even 
Israelites  knew  not  '  the  things  belonging  to  their  peace,' 
because  they  were  '  hid  '  from  their  eyes.  After  a  long 
and  systematic  hiding  of  the  truth,  for  which  Paul  made 
Moses  responsible,1  Jesus  saw  no  other  way  for  the  ful- 
filment of  his  Divine  mission,  than  to  suggest  to  the 
people  by  parables  as  much  of  the  truth  as  they  could 

1  2  Cor.  iii.  12-18;  iv.  1-4. 


JESUS    LIVED    THE    TRUTH.  153 

then  bear,  and  to  prepare  a  chosen  number  of  disciples, 
by  secret  initiation  in  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  for  some  future  time  when  they  or  their  succes- 
sors might  proclaim  in  light  and  upon  the  housetops 
what  he  had  told  them  in  darkness  and  in  the  ear. 
Above  all,  Jesus  taught  the  truth  by  living  it,  thus  set- 
ting an  ensample  or  pattern  that  his  brethren  should 
follow  in  his  footsteps. 

Since  the  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  man  had 
been  kept  in  the  background  by  '  the  law  and  the  pro- 
phets until  John,'  the  people  could  not  understand  and 
profit  by  what  was  written  about  Adam  and  Eve  hearing 
the  voice  of  God ;  about  Cain's  fleeing  from  God's 
presence  ;  about  the  Spirit  of  God  departing  from  Saul, 
and  urging  David  to  repentance ;  about  the  Divine 
origin  of  man  and  his  walk  with  God  ;  about  taking  in 
vain  or  unprofitably  bearing  God's  '  Name '  or  Spirit, 
which  is  also  in  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  ;  about  the  Word 
which  is  near  to  every  man,  that  he  may  do  it ;  about 
the  law  written  in  the  heart ;  about  '  wickedness  con- 
demned by  her  own  witness.' l  By  preaching  and  living 
the  doctrine  of  conscience,  Jesus  opened  the  way  for  the 
gradual  revelation  of  the  mystery  kept  in  secret  since 
the  world  be^an. 


Jesus  and  the  Sacrifice. 

David,  the  ancestor  of  Jesus,  and  descendant  from 
the  Iranians,  to  whom  every  bloody  sacrifice  was  an 
abomination,  had  declared  that  God  did  not  desire  sac- 
rifice and  offering,  neither  burnt-offering  nor  sin-offering ; 
Isaiah  had  protested  against  sacrifices,  and  asked  in  the 
Name  of  the  Lord,  '  Who  hath  required  this  at  your 
hand  ?  '  The  prayer  with  the  uplifted  bloody  hand  God 
will  not  hear  ;  he  will  forgive  sins  on  the  sole  condition 
of  man's  '  ceasing  to  do  evil,  and  learning  to  do  well.' 

1   Wisd.  xvii.  11. 


154  JESUS   AND    THE    ESSENES 

Jeremiah  answers  the  question  raised  by  Isaiah  as  to 
who  had  required  the  sacrifices  from  Israel,  by  the 
declaration  that  God  had  '  said  nothing '  unto  the  fathers 
'  concerning  burnt-offerings  or  sacrifices,'  and  that  the 
people  had  walked  backward  and  not  forward,  since 
God  brought  them  out  of  Egypt,  that  is,  since  the  time 
in  which  the  transmitted  Scriptures  of  Moses  were  held 
to  have  originated,  and  up  to  the  day  when  Jeremiah 
spoke  to  the  children  of  Israel  in  vain,  because  they 
heard  not  '  the  voice  of  the  Lord  ' ;  finally,  Ezechiel  had 
proclaimed  that  man's  soul  is  delivered  by  man's  righ- 
teousness.1 

Already  from  these  passages  we  are  led  to  assume 
that  Jesus  cannot  possibly  have  sanctioned  the  sacrifices, 
ordered  by  the  Scriptures  attributed  to  Moses.  His 
not  having  ever  visited  the  Temple-services  must  be  re- 
garded as  a  protest  against  the  bloody  sacrifices  therein 
offered ;  and  in  the  face  of  such  direct  opposition  to  the 
sacrificial  and  ceremonial  ritual,  it  requires  no  explana- 
tion why  no  word  of  his  is  recorded,  either  against  the 
sacrifices  or  in  favour  of  their  being  regarded  as  types 
of  a  bloody  death  of  the  Messiah,  of  a  sin-removing,  an 
atoning  sacrifice.  Not  even  the  Targum  of  Jonathan 
explains  the  passage  in  Isaiah  about  the  servant  of  God 
by  a  reference  to  the  death  of  the  Messiah,  of  which 
not  a  word  is  contained  in  the  Old  Testament.  Jesus 
has  not  designated  his  death  as  a  condition  of  redemp- 
tion. He  never  spoke  of  his  death  except  in  direct 
connection  with  his  life  ;  he  never  even  hinted  at  a 
result  brought  about  by  his  death  alone,  or  by  his 
death  unconnected  with  his  life.  If  he  has  said  that  he 
came  to  give  his  life  '  a  ransom  for  many,'  he  has  given 
a  figurative  expression  to  the  liberation  from  spiritual 
bondage,  which  we  owe  to  him,  as  to  the  man  who 
taught  men  to  believe  in  the  power  of  God's  indwelling 
Spirit.     Of  a  pre-existing  Messiah  there  is  no  trace  in 

1  Ts.  xl.  6  j  Is.  i.  11  f.  j  Jer.  vii.  22-2(3 ;  Ez.  xiv.  14. 


'  A    RANSOM    FOR    MANY.'  155 

the  first  three  Gospels,  which  we  here  alone  consider,  if 
we  except  the  passage  about  the  Wisdom  of  God  which 
has  sent  prophets  in  all  ages,  and  to  which  personified 
Wisdom  words  have  been  referred  by  Luke,  which 
Matthew  had  previously  recorded  as  words  of  Jesus.1 
The  doctrine  of  the  sacrificial  death  of  Jesus  as  the 
Messiah  stands  and  falls  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
Angel-Messiah  and  slain  Lamb  of  God,  who  existed 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world.  The  doctrine  of 
the  Angel-Messiah  can  be  shown  to  have  been  intro- 
duced into  Judaism  by  the  Essenes,  whose  connection 
with  the  East  can  be  proved.  This  doctrine  seems  to 
have  been  held  by  John  the  Baptist,  though  he  did  not 
apply  it  to  Jesus,  certainly  not  abidingly,  and  to  have 
been  by  the  latter  protested  against.  If  this  result  can 
be  confirmed  by  the  doctrines  of  Paul  and  by  those 
recorded  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  when  investigated  in 
connection  with  the  Essenic  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  then  it  will  be  proved,  that  also  the  doctrine 
of  an  offended  God  reconciled  by  vicarious  sacrifice 
was  not  recognised  by  Jesus. 

Jesus  the  Messiah. 

In  the  Synagogue  of  Nazareth,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  his  public  teaching,  Jesus  is  by  Luke  recorded 
to  have  designated  himself  as  the  servant  of  God,  of 
whom  the  Prophet  had  said,  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
should  rest  on  him,  because  He  had  anointed  him,  that 
is,  made  him  a  Messiah,  to  preach  the  glad  tidings  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  not  as  an  angel  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  earth,  but  as  man  to  men.  With  a  direct 
reference,  it  seems,  to  the  80th  Psalm,  Jesus  called 
himself '  the  son  of  Man,'  because  God  had  made  him 
strong  for  himself,  raising  him  to  '  the  man  of  his  right 
hand.'     Like  the  Finger  of  God,  the  Hand  of  God  is  a 

1  Matt,  xxiii.  34  ;  Luke  xi.  49  ;  about  Psalm  ex.  see  further  on. 


IV,  JESUS    AXD    THE    ESSENES. 

figurative  expression  for  the  Spirit  of  God,  so  that  the 
passage  about  '  the  son  of  Man  '  which  God's  hand  had 
raised  stands  in  direct  connection  with  the  passage  in 
Isaiah  which  Jesus  is  recorded  to  have  read  at  the 
synagogue  and  to  have  referred  to  himself.  It  is  also 
to  be  connected  with  the  passage  in  Peter's  Pentecostal 
sermon  about  Jesus  raised  'by  the  right  hand  of  God.' 
The  passage  about  the  Son  of  the  right  hand  of  God 
was  in  the  mind  of  the  author  of  the  110th  Psalm, 
written  after  the  Eeturn  from  Babylon,  perhaps  on 
the  consecration  of  Joshua,  who,  like  Zerubbabel, 
probably  was  of  Davidic  descent.  If  so,  Joshua  repre- 
sented, in  a  direct  manner,  the  strangers  in  Israel, 
especially  the  Eechabites.  To  their  ancestor  Jonadab, 
Jeremiah  had  promised,  in  the  Name  of  God,  that  he 
'  shall  not  want  a  man  to  stand  before  God  for  ever.' 
To  this  the  Psalmist  refers :  'The  Lord  hath  sworn  and 
will  not  repent,  Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever,  after  the 
order  of  Melchizedec'  The  reference  here  made  to  the 
passage  in  Jeremiah  is  all  the  more  certain,  as  the 
priestly  order  of  Melchizedec,  the  non-Hebrew,  may  be 
connected  with  the  Eechabites,  Kenites  or  sons  of 
Jethro,  the  non-Hebrew.  The  lord  of  the  Eechabites 
was  Jonadab,  and  to  him  God  the  Lord  had  said  that 
he  should  '  stand  before  him '  for  ever.  The  promise 
made  to  Jonadab  would  be  regarded  as  fulfilled  by 
Joshua  on  the  day  of  his  consecration,  when  the 
Psalmist,  possibly  Joshua  himself,  could  say :  '  The 
Lord  said  unto  my  lord  [Jonadab],  Sit  thou  at  my  right 
hand.'  If  the  Eechabites  merged  into  the  Essenic 
order,  this  passage  was  sure  to  be  allegorically  ex- 
plained with  reference  to  the  Angel-Messiah  whom  the 
Essenes  expected,  all  the  more  as  in  the  days  of  Jesus, 
the  Psalm  was,  by  the  people,  believed  to  have  been 
composed  by  David,  who  was  also  a  descendant  of 
Jonadab,  the  lord  of  the  Eechabites  or  Kenites.1 

1  Jer.  xxxv.  18,  10:  P8.  ex.  1,  4. 


SON    OF    DAVID    AND    SON    OF    GOD.  157 

We  may  assume  that  hopes  were  entertained  that 
the  high  priest  Joshua  or  Jesus,  whom  the  prophet 
Zechariah  describes  as  '  standing  before '  the  Angel  of 
the  Lord,  would  be  not  only  the  fulfiller  of  the  pro- 
phecy made  to  Jonadab,  and  thus  to  the  strangers  from 
whom  David  was  descended,  but  also  of  the  prophecy 
made  by  Nathan  to  David,  that  after  his  death  and 
from  his  seed  God  would  set  up  a  descendant  of  his, 
a  son  of  David.  Of  him  God  said  :  '  I  will  be  his 
father,  and  he  shall  be  my  son.'  Through  him  David's 
house  and  kingdom  '  shall  be  established  for  ever.'  A 
Psalmist  who  contrasted  with  this  promise  the  appa- 
rently hopeless  times  preceding  the  Captivity,  refers  to 
Nathan's  promise  when  he  says  of  the  still-expected  son 
of  David  and  Son  of  God  :  '  He  shall  cry  unto  me,  Thou 
art  my  father,  my  God,  and  the  rock  of  my  salvation ; 
and  I  will  make  him  my  firstborn,  higher  than  the 
kings  of  the  earth.'  And  to  this  son  of  David  and  Son 
of  God  the  author  of  the  2nd  Psalm  had  referred, 
probably  at  an  earlier  time,  or  David  himself  had  done 
so,  as  stated  in  the  Acts,  by  saying,  '  Thou  art  my  Son, 
this  day  have  I  begotten  thee.'  It  was  all  the  more 
natural  to  refer  this  to  the  high  priest  Joshua,  since, 
like  the  expected  descendant  of  David  whom  Isaiah  had 
called  '  the  Branch,'  and  on  whom  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  should  rest,  Joshua  did  fulfil  Nathan's  prophecy, 
as  Solomon  had  done  before,  by  building  a  house  of 
God.  Indeed,  the  prophet  Zechariah  actually  designates 
Joshua  as  '  the  man  whose  name  is  the  Branch.'1 

In  the  Old  Testament  there  is  not  one  single  passage 
about  the  promised  Son  of  God  which  ought  to  be  discon- 
nected from  Nathan's  promise  of  a  son  of  David  and 
Son  of  God.  After  the  introduction,  almost  certainly 
by  the  Essenes,  of  the  new  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah,   the   Messianic    attribute,   '  the   son   of  God, 

1  2  Sam.  vii.  L2-  14;    Ps.   Ixxxix.   26,  27;    Ps.  ii.  7;  Is.  xi.   1-2;  lxi. 
1-2;  Zech.  vi.  11,12. 


158  JESUS   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

received  a  new  interpretation.     Although  not  directly 
either  in  the  first  three  Gospels  or  the  Acts,  yet  '  the 
son  of  God '  was  in  Paulinic  writings  and  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  referred  to  a  superhuman  individual,   to  a  man 
not  born  of  human  parents,  but  who  had  for  a  time 
given  up  his  celestial  abode,  where  he  was  the  first  of 
seven  Angels,  and  by  whom  the  world  had  been  created. 
At  first,  as  by  Paul  in  one  passage,  the  celestial  son  of 
God  was  identified  with  the  son  of  David.     The  first 
recorded  assertion  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God  but 
4  not  the  son  of  David,'  as  the  '  wicked  '  Jews  maintained, 
is  found  in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  transmitted  to  us, 
which  the  Alexandrian  Clement,  Origen,  and  Eusebius 
cite  as  a  writing  of  the  Apostle  Barnabas.      The  essen- 
tially Essenic  and  anti-Gentile  character  of  this  Epistle 
confirms  the   hypothesis   that  the  Essenes  introduced 
the  new  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  and  with  it  the 
doctrine  of  the  atoning  death  of  Messiah,  into  Judaism 
and  Christianity.     In  the  sense  of  Nathan's  prophecy 
Jesus  called  himself  the  Son  of  God.     This  will  be  con- 
firmed by  a  full  consideration  of  the  question  whether 
Essenic  influences  may  not  be  traced  back  to  the  com- 
position of  the  Gospels  and  Pauline  Epistles,  especially 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  as  the  bishop  and  church- 
historian  Eusebius  suggests  we  must  do.     We  saw  that 
having  identified  the  Therapeuts  of  Philo  with  the  Chris- 
tian ascetics,  Eusebius  adds  :  '  It  is  highly  probable  that 
the  ancient  commentaries  which  he  (Philo)  says  they 
have,  are  the  very  Gospels  and  writings  of  the  Apostles, 
and  probably  some  expositions  of  the  ancient  Prophets, 
such  as  are  contained  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
and  many  others  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.' 1 

Jesus  was  crucified   because  he  himself  or  others 
called  him  '  king  of  the  Jews,'  as  the  inscription  on  his 
cross  announced.     It  is  possible  that  he  regarded  him- 
self as  the  son  of  David  and  Son   of  God  to  which  the 
1   Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  1 7. 


TRIUMPHANT    ENTRY    INTO    JERUSALEM.  159 

recorded  prophecy  of  Nathan  referred,  though  it  seemed 
to  have  been  fulfilled  by  Solomon,  and  had  last  been 
applied  to  the  high  priest  Joshua.  If  Jesus  really  did 
expect  a  Messiah,  as  most  Jews  seem  to  have  done,  and 
if  he  regarded  himself  as  Him  that  should  come,  he  may 
have  thought  that  the  spiritual  kingdom  which  it  was 
his  mission  to  found,  could  be  easier  established  by  his 
accepting,  in  harmony  with  Nathan's  prophecy,  the  dig- 
nity of  '  king  of  the  Jews,'  which  multitudes  were  eager 
to  confer  on  him.  Indeed,  what  is  recorded  about  the 
triumphant  entry  into  Jerusalem  shows  that  probably 
the  majority  of  the  people  in  Jerusalem  received  him 
with  royal  honours  as  the  promised  son  of  David  and 
Messiah-King,  who  came  in  the  Name  of  the  Lord,  that 
the  entire  city  was  in  commotion  and  said,  '  This  is 
Jesus,  the  prophet  of  Nazareth  of  Galilee.'  The  spiri- 
tual rulers  of  Israel  spoke  of  '  all  the  world  '  following 
him  ;  we  may  therefore  assume  some  of  the  Essenes  to 
have  followed  in  his  train.  According  to  Luke  '  many ' 
had  joined  him  from  Jericho,  near  to  the  Essenic  settle- 
ments. In  the  fourth  Gospel  it  is  stated,  that  shortly 
before  his  entry  into  Jerusalem  Jesus  had  gone  '  beyond 
Jordan,  into  the  place  where  John  at  first  baptized,'  and 
that  '  many  believed  on  him  there.'  It  is  even  possible 
that  these  disciples  of  John  who  followed  Jesus — it  is 
possible  that  Essenes  had  helped  to  bring  about,  if  not 
to  prepare,  his  triumphant  entry  into  Jerusalem,  which 
Jesus  could  not  have  prevented. 

The  secret  society  of  the  Essenes,  spread  over  Pales- 
tine, Egypt  and  other  countries,  and  based  on  the  non- 
recognition  of  the  Temple-services  and  of  private 
property,  had  become  a  standing  danger  to  the  recog- 
nised theocratic  institutions  of  Israel.  Although  not 
sanctioning,  but  opposing  the  Essenic  expectations  of  an 
Angel-Messiah,  Jesus  had  abstained  from  any  partici- 
pation in  the  Temple-services,  as  the  Essenes  had  always 
done,  and  the  worship  in  the  synagogues  which  he  en- 


1G0  JESUS   AND    THE    ESSEN ES. 

couraged  by  his  teaching  was  in  harmony  with  some  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Essenes.  A  public 
recognition  of  Jesus  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  secretly 
planned  and  effectually  supported  by  the  multitude  to 
whom  he  was  so  well  known,  might  lead  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Temple-services  and  to  their  being  supplanted 
by  the  Synagogue.  This  must  have  paved  the  way  to  a 
more  or  less  Essenic  reformation  of  Judaism.  If  he 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  such  a  movement,  Jesus 
may  have  hoped  to  remove  the  errors  of  the  Essenian 
creed,  especially  the  expectation  of  an  Angel-Messiah. 

The  prohibition  which  Jesus  is  said  to  have  ad- 
dressed to  his  disciples,  that  they  should  '  tell  no  man  ' 
that  he  was  the  Messiah,  could  hardly  be  explained  by 
the  assumption  that  these  words  were  attributed  to 
Jesus  by  those  who,  like  the  Essenes,  wished  to  prove 
that  he  had  secretly  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  of  which  there  is  no  trace  in  the  first  three 
Gospels.  But  if  Jesus  did  give  this  command  about 
secreting  the  most  important  doctrine,  that  is,  his 
relation  to  the  Messianic  expectations  of  his  time,  we 
might  assume  that  Jesus  took  precautions  against  his 
being  regarded  as  the  Messiah  in  a  sense  contrary  to 
that  which  he  could  approve.  He  certainly  did  not 
wish  to  be  proclaimed  as  the  Angel-Messiah  whom  the 
disciples  of  John  or  the  Essenes  expected.  Even  were  we 
to  assume  that  Jesus  thought  the  setting  up  of  his 
spiritual  kingdom  might  have  been  facilitated  by  his 
accepting  the  kingship  of  the  Jews,  his  motives  for 
doing  so  would  have  had  to  be  kept  secret  by  the  few 
to  whom  lie  would  naturally  have  confided  and  who 
would  have  understood  them.  All  his  disciples  knew 
that  he  was  watched  by  emissaries  from  the  ruling 
Sadducees,  who  would  have  gladly  espied  some  words 
from  him  about  his  relation  to  the  different  Messianic 
expectations.  In  the  fourth  Gospel  it  is  implied  by  words 
of  Jesus  that  he  was  accused  to  have  taught  certain 


THE    KING    OF    THE    JEWS.  161 

doctrines  *  in  secret '  only.  The  Sadducees,  who  be- 
lieved not  in  angels  or  spirits,  as  Josephus  states,  had 
good  reasons  to  oppose  even  an  indirect  spreading  of  the 
secretly  promulgated  Essenic  doctrine  about  the  An^el- 
Messiah. 

The  mysterious  betrayal  of  Jesus  by  Judas  may  have 
been  connected  with  a  breach  of  trust  in  this  very 
point,  with  Judas  disobeying  his  master's  injunction,  not 
to  tell  any  man  that  he  was  the  Christ.  At  all  events, 
it  was  not  worth  even  '  thirty  pieces  of  silver  ' — the  price 
given  for  the  liberation  of  a  slave — to  inform  the  recog- 
nised authorities  at  Jerusalem  where  Jesus  was,  who 
had  publicly  entered  the  city,  and  was  daily  visited  by 
multitudes  on  the  Mount  of  Olives.  But  it  was  very 
important  for  the  ruling  Sadducees  to  know  what 
secret  instructions,  if  any,  Jesus  had  given  to  his  dis- 
ciples about  his  Messianic  views,  and  what  plans  the 
Essenes  might  have  projected  to  set  him  up  as  king 
of  the  Jews.  The  appointed  guardians  of  the  Temple 
had  weighty  reasons  not  to  underrate  the  triumphant 
entry  of  Jesus  into  Jerusalem,  nor  the  possible  conse- 
quences of  so  unexpected  a  demonstration,  perhaps 
secretly  prepared  by  Essenes.  Even  if  Jesus  should  not 
assume  the  offered  title  and  dignity  of  king  of  the  Jews, 
and  even  if  he  should  discourage  the  secret  Messianic 
expectations  of  the  disciples  of  John,  that  is,  of  the 
Essenes,  as  Jesus  would  certainly  have  done,  still  he  was 
sure  to  continue  in  his  hostility  against  the  Temple- 
services.  The  Synagogue,  which  the  ruling  Sadducees 
did  not  visit,  might  have  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
the  Temple  ;  the  latter  degraded  to  a  synagogue  without 
priests  ;  and  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  might  have  been 
acknowledged  by  all  as  sitting  in  the  seat  of  Moses, 
as  the  sole  authority  with  regard  to  doctrine.  If  Judas 
could  prove  by  his  evidence  that  Jesus  had  spoken  in 
secret  to  the  disciples  about  his  Messiahship,  the  only 
possible  accusation  of  the  authorities  could  succeed,  that 

M 


162  JESUS    AND    THE    ESSBNES. 

Jesus,  by  allowing  himself  to  be  proclaimed  as  king  of 
the  Jews,  had  made  himself  the  enemy  of  Cassar.  Then 
it  would  be  easy  to  bring  about  a  popular  riot,  a  sham 
trial,  the  condemnation  and  crucifixion. 

When  this  had  been  accomplished,  perhaps  with  the 
direct  assistance  of  the  only  non-Galilean  disciple  of 
Jesus,  by  Judas,  the  man  of  Kerioth  in  Judah,  who 
accused  himself  of  having  betrayed  innocent  blood,  all 
fears  of  the  Sadducees  seemed  to  be  over.  His  disciples 
forsook  him  and  fled.  The  words  which  Jesus  is  re- 
corded to  have  spoken  on  the  cross :  '  My  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? '  can  only  be  referred  to  the 
apparent  failure  of  his  mission.  In  the  eyes  of  the 
world  God  had  forsaken  him,  by  not  granting  any 
immediate  success. 

In  the  latest  revised  Gospel  Jesus  is  recorded  to  have 
said  :  '  ^Behold  your  house  is  left  (or  rather,  shall  be 
left)  unto  you  desolate  (or  deserted),  for  I  say  unto  you, 
ye  shall  not  see  me  henceforth  till  ye  shall  say :  Blessed 
is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.'  If  Jesus 
has  said  this,  he  has  confirmed  the  recorded  prophetic 
visions  about  a  Messiah  at  Jerusalem,  whether  himself  or 
not,  who  shall  come  in  the  Name  or  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
after  the  desolation  of  Israel's  house  by  the  Eomans,  or 
at  a  still  later  desolation  of  the  country.  Then  Jesus 
will  be  seen,  in  the  form  of  visions  or  otherwise.  In 
the  same  Gospel  the  Messianic  time  is  connected  with 
the  rising  of  nation  against  nation,  with  wrong  inter- 
pretations of  Messianic  prophecies,  especially  with 
Christ's  being  '  in  the  desert,'  possibly  in  the  wilderness 
where  the  Essenes  lived.  '  The  son  of  man,'  or  Messiah, 
is  to  come  suddenly  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  as 
lightning  does,  and  lus  sign  shall  appear  in  heaven,  and 
all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  shall  see  '  the  son  of  man 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and 
great  glory.'  This  fulfilment  of  the  Danielic  vision  is  to 
come   to   pass   '  immediately   after   the  tribulations   of 


tiif:   son   OF   .MAX.  168 

those  days,' — probably  the  Roman  conquest.  But  in 
Luke  the  coming  of  the  son  of  man  is  deferred  to 
an  uncertain  time ;  and  the  fourth  Gospel  is  silent  on 
the  supposed  and  expected  bodily  reappearance  of 
Jesus  as  Angel-Messiah  in  glory.  And  yet  we  should 
expect  that  in  this  Gospel  of  types  and  anti-types  the 
future  coming  of  the  Angel-Messiah  would  be  especially 
referred  to  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  Jewish  feast  of 
tabernacles,  '  the  feast  of  in-gathering,'  and  '  the  latter- 
day  glory,'  ushered  in  by  the  conversion  of  all  nations. 
Only  in  one  sense  can  Jesus  have  regarded  himself 
as  the  promised  and  generally  expected  Messiah.  We 
have  seen  that  Messianic  conceptions  were  prevalent  in 
the  East  before  the  commencement  of  Jewish  history, 
and  that  the  last  of  the  expected  incarnations  of  an 
Angel-Messiah  was  by  many  believed  to  have  been 
Gautama-Buddha,  born  about  500  years  before  Jesus. 
Neither  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  transmitted 
to  us,  although  they  were  not  finally  revised  till  after 
the  Return  from  Babylon,  and  partly  not  before  the  time 
of  Alexander,  nor  the  first  three  Gospels,  contain  a  clear 
reference  to  an  Angel-Messiah.  But  it  is  evident  that 
the  vision  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  about  one 
;  like  '  a  son  of  man  brought  before  God  on  the  clouds 
of  heaven  must  be  and  was  referred  to  a  superhuman 
being.  We  have  not  here  to  consider  whether  or  not 
this  vision  had  for  its  source  the  Eastern  expectation  of 
an  Angel-Messiah,  which  prevailed  in  Mesopotamia  in 
ancient  times,  and  was  represented  by  the  Essenes  and 
probably  the  Rechabites.  It  is  certain  that  not  one  of  the 
passages  which  have  been  Messianically  interpreted  and 
which  can  possibly  have  been  written  before  the  Return 
from  Babylon,  refers  to  the  expected  Messiah  as  an 
incarnate  Angel.  In  all  passages  which  provably  refer 
to  earlier  times  the  Messiah  is  designated  as  a  descen- 
dant from  David,  on  whom  the  Spirit  of  God  would  rest, 
as  an  anointed  man,  and  thus  Son  of  God.   The  first  three 


164  JESUS   AXD   THE    ESSENE&, 

Gospels  connect  Jesus  with  no  other  than  with  this 
Messianic  expectation. 

If  the  tradition  recorded  in  the  Gospel  after  Luke  is 
historical,  Jesus  has  announced  himself  in  his  synagogal 
address  at  Nazareth  as  the  expected  Messiah,  seen  by 
the  Prophets,  as  the  promised  son  of  David  and  Son  of 
God,  as  the  fulfiller  of  the  prophecies  of  Nathan  and 
other  seers.  It  may  be  urged  that  even  this  identifica- 
tion by  Jesus  is  doubtful,  inasmuch  as  Matthew  and 
Mark  say  nothing  about  it,  whilst  in  the  fourth  Gospel, 
which,  like  the  third,  we  shall  connect  with  Essenic 
sources,  Jesus  is  by  revelation  pointed  out  to  the  Baptist 
as  the  fulfiller  of  Messianic  prophecies,  as  he  on  whom 
John  would  see  the  Spirit  of  God  descend  and  rest. 
Whether  Jesus  did  or  did  not  connect  himself  with  this 
servant  of  God,  with  this  anointed  man,  as  Joshua  had 
before  been  connected,  Jesus  certainly  recognised  that 
he  was  moved  to  do  God's  will  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Jesus  declared  that  he  and  some  of  his  contemporaries 
drove  out  devils  or  evil  spirits  by  the  good  spirit,  and 
that  it  was  a  sin  '  against  the  Holy  Ghost '  to  say  that 
he  and  they  did  so  by  the  evil  spirit.  To  attri- 
bute good  to  evil,  or,  we  may  add,  to  attribute  evil  to 
good,  Jesus  declared  to  be  a  sin  which  would  not  be 
forgiven,  which  would  have  consequences  in  this  world 
and  in  the  world  to  come. 

To  drive  out  of  man  the  spirit  of  evil,  to  bring  him 
under  the  direction  of  the  spirit  of  good,  and  thus  to 
establish  a  communion  between  man  and  God,  who  is  a 
Spirit,  this  is  to  place  man  under  the  conditions  which 
are  essential  to  that  development  of  which  his  nature  is 
capable  in  the  terrestrial  and  in  the  non-terrestrial 
phases  of  his  existence.  Like  the  magnet,  man  possesses 
an  attracting  and  a  repelling  force ;  he  can  attract  and 
repel  both  good  and  evil  influences,  thus  placing  himself 
under  the  guidance  of  higher  or  lower,  of  the  highest 
and  of  the  lowest  organs  of  the  Divine  Spirit  which  in  a 


THE    ANOINTED    MAX.  166 

mysterious  way  proceeds  from  the  personal  God,  whom 
no  man  has  seen  or  can  see.  It  depends  on  man's  will 
to  do  or  not  to  do  the  will  of  the  Father  of  all  spirits,  of 
Him  whom  Jesus  called  the  only  One  who  is  good.  It 
is  the  gift  of  God  that  the  Spirit  from  above  has  shone 
in  all  ages  as  the  light  of  men,  and  presumably  of  all 
reasonable  creatures  in  other  stars.  But  few  knew  that 
there  is  a  Holy  Ghost,  fewer  still  were  guided  by  the 
power  of  God,  and  from  the  people  this  saving  know- 
ledge had  been  hidden,  the  '  key  of  knowledge '  had 
been  taken  away.  '  The  law  and  the  Prophets  until 
John,'  him  included,  had  prophesied  about  the  future 
coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  they  had  '  shut  up  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  unto  men,'  and  Jesus  declared 
that  John  the  Baptist  did  not  belong  to  that  spiritual 
kingdom. 

Eevealing  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  declaring 
and  proving  by  word  and  deed  that  the  kingdom  of 
God  has  already  come,  baptizing  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
Jesus  said  :  Come  unto  me,  take  my  yoke  upon  you 
(the  uniting  yoke  of  God's  Spirit),  learn  of  me  how  to 
obey  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls.  Jesus  taught  and  lived  this  new  doctrine  of  God's 
anointing  Spirit.  In  the  face  of  erroneous  doctrines 
about  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Messiah,  Jesus  regarded 
it  as  his  mission  to  preach  by  word  and  deed  the  presence 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  mankind,  the  universality  and 
all-sufficiency  of  the  Saviour  of  all  ages.  In  this  sense, 
Jesus  came  to  save  that  which  was  lost ;  he  was  the 
Saviour  of  mankind  who  came  in  the  Name  or  Spirit  of 
the  Lord.  As  a  chosen  instrument  of  that  saving  power 
by  which  God  had  anointed  him  or  made  him  a  Christ, 
as  the  man  who  denounced  the  law  and  the  Prophets 
for  having  prophesied  about  the  future  coming,  whilst 
not  pointing  to  the  present  working  of  God's  Spirit  in 
the  flesh — in  short,  as  the  anointed  Man,  not  as  an 
anointed  Angel,  Jesus  was  and  is  the  Christ. 


166  JESUS   AM)    THE    BSSENES. 

( '(inclusion. 

The  transmitted  records  of  man's  history  admit  of 
the  conclusion  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  man  who 
readied  the  ideal  of  humanity,  the  One  who  obtained 
the  prize  in  the  race  of  the  many.  By  obediently  fol- 
lowing the  dictates  of  his  enlightened  conscience,  the 
same  had  become  the  hallowed  deposit  of  Divine  revela- 
tions. Acquainted  with  the  capabilities  and  wants  of 
the  human  frame,  Jesus  fulfilled  and  delegated  to  his 
brethren  the  highest  moral  law  of  which  the  earth-born 
son  of  man  is  capable.  What  Jesus  has  left  to  mankind 
is  an  example  which  we  can  follow.  We  can  follow 
him  in  the  regeneration,  in  the  Divine  Sonship,  for  with 
our  great  ancestor  we  are  '  participators  of  the  Divine 
nature.'  God  speaks  to  us  through  his  Spirit,  as  He 
spoke  to  Jesus  and  to  ancestors  of  his  in  all  ages.  For 
those  who  have  been  born  again  by  the  greatest  of 
miracles,  for  those  who  have  been  renewed  in  the  spirit 
of  their  minds,  the  miraculous  attestations  of  God  never 
cease,  they  know  that  their  life  is  a  link  in  the  chain  of 
past  and  of  future  developments. 

Unless  Ave  are  prepared  to  deny  the  humanity  of 
Jesus,  we  must  accept  as  a  fact  that,  he  also  com- 
menced his  life  in  ignorance,  that  he  passed  a  period  of 
doubt,  and  finally  saw,  seized,  and  lived  the  truth.  Not 
even  in  the  case  of  the  most  perfect  man,  of  One  who 
received  the  Holy  Ghost  '  without  measure,'  and  whom 
God  '  anointed  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power,' 
can  we  imagine — not  even  of  such  a  son  of  God  dare  we 
assert — a  progress  in  his  spiritual  development  without 
error,  a  progress  in  his  moral  evolution  without  combat. 
We  must  distinguish  error  from  sin.  The  nature  of  sin 
is  not  error ;  but  it  is  the  denial  by  word  and  deed  of 
what  the  responsible  being  knows  to  be  truth.  We 
cannot  assume  that  the  conscience  of  Jesus  was  some- 
thing given   him   without    his   co-operation,  something 


THE    COVENANT   OF   A   GOOD    CONSCIENCE.  167 

which  was  from  the  beginning  perfect.  We  must  regard 
his  conscience  as  a  gradual  and  normal  development  of 
the  moral  germ  with  which  he  was  born,  of  the  moral 
law  written  by  God  on  the  tables  of  his  heart.  Man  is 
a  co-operator  in  the  redemption  from  the  evils  to  which 
his  nature  is  exposed.  Jesus  was  no  exception  to  this 
rule,  notwithstanding  his  Messianity  and  Divinity. 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  preached  by  Jesus  is  not 
the  kingdom  of  the  Angel-Messiah  as  preached  by  John 
the  Baptist  or  Essene.  The  New  Covenant  is  the  cove- 
nant of  a  good  conscience  with  God.  Herein  lies  the 
efficacy  of  Christ's  redemption,  the  world-conquering 
power  of  Christianity. 


168  PAUL   AND    THE    ESSENES. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PAUL    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

The  Hellenists — The  person  of  Christ — Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  God — The 
resurrection  of  Christ — Apparitions  of  Jesus  after  death — The  day  of 
Pentecost — The  Atonement — Conclusion. 

The  Hellenists. 

Jesus  had  opposed  some  of  the  doctrines  of  John  the 
Baptist  or  Essene,  and  so  the  twelve  Apostles  opposed 
some  of  the  doctrines  of  Paul,  at  least,  during  the  seven- 
teen years  previous  to  his  recognition  as  an  Apostle. 
Paul  was  by  birth  a  Pharisee,  and  the  ruling  Sadducees 
had  appointed  him  as  chief  agent  for  the  persecution 
which  arose  '  because  of  Stephen.'  We  may  assume 
that  Saul  of  Tarsus  in  Cilicia  was  among  the  men  of 
Cilicia  who  disputed  with  Stephen,  '  a  man  full  of  faith 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  having  done  '  great  wonders 
and  miracles  among  the  people.'  Stephen  was  the  first 
of  those  '  seven  men  of  honest  report,  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  wisdom '  whom  the  Grecians  or  Hellenists, 
that  is,  Greek-speaking  Jews  at  Jerusalem,  had  elected 
among  themselves  to  be  '  appointed '  by  the  Apostles 
over  the  business  of  daily  ministration  or  assistance  to 
Grecian  widows.  These  Grecians  assembled  in  one  or 
more  synagogues  of  their  own  at  Jerusalem,  and  among 
them  were  Alexandrians.  Here  it  was  that  those  who 
disputed  with  Stephen  '  were  not  able  to  resist  the 
wisdom  and  the  spirit  by  which  he  spake.'  The  '  mur- 
muring '  between  Grecians  and  Hebrews,  which  seems 
at  first  not  to  have  been  connected  with  doctrine,  made 
way  for  the  accusation  of  Stephen  before  the  council, 


STEPHEN    AN    ESSEN  E.  169 

who  was    charged  with  having    spoken  'blasphemous 
words  against  Moses  and  against  God.' 

According  to  Eabbinical  tradition  there  were  480 
synagogues  at  Jerusalem,  and  yet  no  Gentile  was  ever 
admitted  as  member  of  any  synagogue.  The  Alexan- 
drians who  disputed  with  Stephen  were  therefore  cer- 
tainly Greek-speaking  Jews  of  Alexandria.  A  few  miles 
from  Alexandria  was  the  chief  settlement  of  the  Essenian 
Therapeuts,  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  some  of 
them,  like  the  '  Greeks,'  had  '  come  up  to  worship  at 
the  feast.'  Such  Jewish  Therapeuts  of  Alexandria 
would  be  included  in  the  general  designation  '  Alexan- 
drians.' Stephen  himself,  the  Greek-speaking  JeAV, 
who,  like  his  brethren,  bore  a  Greek  name,  might  have 
been  an  Essenic  Therapeut.  It  can  be  proved  by  two 
facts  that  Stephen  was  an  Essene.  In  his  speech  he 
designates  Jesus  as  the  Angel  who  was  with  the  fathers 
in  the  wilderness.  But  the  expectation  of  an  Angel- 
Messiah  cannot  be  shown  to  have  ever  prevailed  among 
any  orthodox  party  in  Israel ;  whereas  weighty  reasons 
permit  us  to  assume  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah  existed  as  secret  tradition  among  the  Essenes  of 
the  pre-Christian  and  of  the  Apostolic  times.  The  ruling 
Sadducees  were  obliged  to  oppose  this  doctrine  with  all 
their  might,  not  only  because  they  believed  neither  in 
angels  or  spirits,  whilst  forbidding  the  Pharisees  to 
promulgate  their  ancestral  tradition,  but  because  the 
Scriptures  which  the  Sadducees  recognised  do  not  point 
by  a  single  word  to  an  Angel-Messiah.  It  would  there- 
fore appear  as  possible  that  the  j^ersecution  of  Stephen 
and  of  his  companions  in  the  faith  had  been  chiefly 
caused  by  the  new  doctrine  about  the  Angel-Messiah  as 
applied  to  Jesus. 

The  speech  of  Stephen,  as  recorded  in  the  Acts, 
shows  that  he  did  apply  to  Jesus  the  exclusively  Essenic 
doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah.  Jesus  Christ  is  by 
Stephen  identified  with  the  '  Angel  of  the   Lord '  who 


170  PAUL    AND    THE    ESSEXES. 

appeared  to  Moses  *  in  a  flame  of  fire  in  a  bush,'  and 
from  which  '  the  voice  of  the  Lord  came  unto  him.' 
By  the  hand  of  this  Angel  God  had  sent  Moses  as  ruler 
and  deliverer.  The  Prophet  like  unto  Moses  which  God 
should  raise  among  Israel,  was  by  Stephen  identified 
with  the  Angel  of  God  who  had  spoken  to  Moses  in  the 
Mount  Sinai,  and  with  the  fathers,  and  through  whom 
Moses  had  received  lively  oracles,  or  living  words,  to 
give  unto  Israel.  But  the  fathers  of  Israel  would  not 
obey  Moses,  and  thus  they  rejected  the  revelation  of 
the  Angel  of  God.1  Stephen  implies  with  sufficient 
clearness  that  if  the  fathers  had  obeyed  Moses,  and  thus 
the  Angel  who  spoke  to  him  on  Sinai,  Israel  might  then 
have  received  the  gift  of  the  Divine  Spirit  through  the 
Angel.  But  Israel's  fathers  and  their  descendants  have 
'  always  resisted  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Israel's  fathers  have 
persecuted  all  the  Prophets,  and  they  have  slain  those 
'  which  showed  before  of  the  coming  of  the  Just  One,' 
of  whom  the  Israelitic  contemporaries  of  Stephen  have 
been  '  the  betrayers  and  murderers.'  Stephen,  so  con- 
tinues the  recorder, '  being  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  looked 
up  stedfastly  into  heaven,  and  saw  the  glory  of  God, 
and  Jesus  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  said, 
Behold,  I  see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  man 
standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God.'  Having  prayed  to 
the  '  Lord  Jesus '  that  he  would  receive  his  spirit,  and 
that  he  woidd  not  lay  this  sin  to  the  charge  of  them 
who  stoned  him,  the  first  Christian  martyr  fell  asleep. 

According  to  his  own  statement,  Saul  of  Tarsus  was 
the  young  man  whose  name  was  Saul,  at  whose  feet, 
according  to  a  still  prevailing  custom,  the  witnesses  had 
laid  down  their  clothes,  before  throwing  the  first  stones 
on  the  man  condemned  as  worthy  of  death.2  The  man 
from  Cilicia,  who  had  heard,  and  probably  taken  part  in 
the  disputations  with  Stephen — he  who  had  heard  his 

1  Gomp.  Deut.  xxxiii.  2-5  in  the  Septuagint  version ;  Gal.  iii.  19. 

2  Deut.  xvii.  (5,  7. 


OBEDIENCE    TO    THE    FAITH.  171 

defence,  also  heard,  as  the  representative  of  the  Jewish 
authorities,  when  he  was  stoned,  his  confession  of  faith  in 
the  risen  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah  promised  by  Moses, 
according  to  Stephen's  interpretation.  This  doctrine, 
which  is  contrary  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Mosaic 
Scriptures,  we  must  connect,  as  with  the  Essenes,  the 
only  Jews  who  have  held  it,  so  at  least  with  some  of  the 
Hellenists  whom  Stephen  represented.  Stephen  is  not 
likely  to  have  been  the  only  one  among  the  Grecians 
who  expected  an  Angel-Messiah,  and  who  regarded 
Jesus  as  the  same. 

We  know  not  how  long  before  his  martyrdom 
Stephen  was  elected  as  the  first  of  the  seven  deacons, 
but  we  are  told,  that  '  the  whole  multitude '  at 
Jerusalem  was  pleased  with  their  elections,  that  '  the 
word  of  God  increased  ;  and  the  number  of  the  disciples 
multiplied  in  Jerusalem  greatly  ;  and  a  great  company 
of  the  priests  were  obedient  to  the  faith.'  This  account 
is  evidently  written  with  a  view  to  the  harmonising 
objects  of  the  Acts,  which  are  attributed  in  their  present 
form  to  Luke.  In  his  earlier  written  Gospel  Luke  had 
not  dared  openly  to  assert  what  he,  like  Paul,  must 
have  believed,  that  Jesus  was  the  incarnate  Angel  of 
God.  Yet  Luke  implied  as  much  when  attributing,  as 
he  is  recorded  to  have  done,  words  of  Jesus  to  the 
'  Wisdom  of  God,'  who  had  sent  the  Prophets  in  all  ages. 
'  The  faith  '  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  at  Jerusalem  is  in 
the  Acts  implied  to  have  been  one  and  the  same,  that 
is,  the  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah.  If  so,  the 
faith  of  the  twelve  Apostles,  of  Stephen  and  of  Paul, 
would  have  been  one  and  the  same ;  and  it  would  be  in- 
explicable that  there  is  no  trace  of  such  doctrine  in  any 
of  the  Scriptures  composed  before  the  deportation  to 
Babylon,  or  in  the  first  three  Gospels,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  the  passage  just  cited,  which  Luke  or  a 
later  reviser  has  freely  enlarged  after  Matthew's  record. 
It    would    seem    that    the    Essenic    and    Hellenistic 


172  PAUL   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

teaching  about  the  Angel-Messiah  had  already  become 
very  popular  when  Herod  Agrippa  became  Eoman 
governor  of  Judasa.  His  mother  was  a  Jewess,  being 
descended  from  the  Maccabees,  whose  allies  were  the 
Assidseans  or  Essenes.  Although  Herod  encouraged  the 
Nazarites,  with  whom  the  Essenes  were  indirectly  con- 
nected by  their  austere  mode  of  life,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  assume  that  the  zealous  defender  of  the 
Mosaic  law  held  or  favoured  the  Essenic  doctrine  about 
the  Angel-Messiah.  So  popular  seems  to  have  been 
this  doctrine,  the  doctrine  of  Stephen,  that  the  sudden 
death  of  Herod  was  attributed  to  the  Angel  of  God  with 
whom  Stephen  had  identified  the  risen  Jesus. 

It  is  probable  that  Stephen's  martyrdom  took  place, 
in  the  year  of  accession  of  Herod  Agrippa,  and  at  the 
commencement  of  the  first  year  of  his  reign  of  three 
years.  Since  Saul  was  converted  in  the  year  of  Stephen's 
death,  the  three  years  which  Paul  spent  in  Arabia 
before  he  returned  to  Jerusalem  are  best  explained  by 
the  supposition  that,  so  long  as  this  despot  lived,  the 
man  who  had  been  sent  from  Jerusalem  as  a  persecutor 
and  had  become  a  convert  could  not  have  shown  him- 
self in  that  city.  Probably,  therefore,  in  the  year  a.d.  41, 
the  great  persecution  '  about  Stephen '  commenced,  and, 
according  to  the  Acts,  it  was  directed  against  all  the 
members  of  '  the  Church  which  was  at  Jerusalem ' ; 
these  were  '  all  scattered  abroad  throughout  the  regions 
of  Judgea  and  Samaria,  except  the  Apostles.'  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  explain  this  remarkable  exception,  unless  on  the 
ground  of  the  supposition  that  Stephen  had  been  put  to 
death  and  his  followers  scattered  for  spreading  doctrines 
not  recognised  by  the  Apostles.  The  fierce  attack  of 
Stephen  against  the  fathers  of  Israel  must  have  been 
condemned  by  the  Apostles  as  much  as  by  the  high 
priest,  whose  right  hand  Herod  Agrippa  seems  to  have 
been.  The  Apostles  could  become  objects  of  persecution 
only  in  so  far  as  they  had  not  up  to  this  time  worshipped 


THE    LIMITED    ASSOCIATION   OF    DISCIPLES.  ITS 

at  the  Temple,  but  in  the  synagogue  only.  They  could 
not  be  made  answerable  for  what  Stephen  had  taught. 
On  the  contrary,  they  must  have  opposed  his  doctrine 
of  the  Angel-Messiah  as  one  which  Jesus  had  not  recog- 
nised,  as  the  first  three  Gospels  clearly  prove.  That 
James  was  beheaded  and  Peter  imprisoned  by  Herod 
Agrippa  may  be  sufficiently  explained  by  their  not 
having  worshipped  in  the  Temple  any  more  than  Jesus 
had  done  so. 

Previous  to  the  death  of  Stephen,  during  the  seven 
to  nine  years  after  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  which 
probably  took  place  at  Easter  in  the  year  35,  the 
deacons  or  overseers  of  the  Hellenists  must  have  had  a 
considerable  following  at  Jerusalem.  We  may  safely 
assume  that  already  then,  if  not  ever  since  the  death 
of  Jesus,  Stephen  had  proclaimed  him  at  Jerusalem  as 
the  Angel-Messiah  of  the  Essenes  and  Therapeuts.  It 
is  even  probable  that  among  the  very  small  number  of 
'  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  '  disciples  who  assem- 
bled at  Jerusalem  a  few  days  after  the  crucifixion,  if 
not  already  the  next  day,  on  the  16th  Nisan,  the  day 
of  the  presentation  of  the  firstling-sheaf,  there  were 
some,  and  perhaps  many  Essenes,  who  regarded  Jesus 
as  the  Angel-Messiah.  We  may  even  conjecture  that 
this  very  limited  association  consisted  chiefly  of  Essenes, 
and  did  not  include  many  who,  like  the  Apostles,  as  we 
here  assume,  regarded  Jesus  as  the  promised  anointed 
Man,  without  believing  that  '  a  new  religion  was  to  be 
set  up  in  the  world,'  or  that  '  the  professors  of  that 
religion  were  to  be  distinguished  from  the  rest  of 
mankind.'1 

After  that  which  the  Apostles  regarded  as  idle  tales 
about  what  women  had  first  declared  to  have  seen  at 
the  grave,  even  after  the  well  attested  apparitions  of 
Jesus,  many  would  require  additional  evidence,  such  as 
the  recorded  miraculous  fulfilment  of  the  Jewish  Pente- 

1  Paley,  Evidences  of  Christianity,  ix. 


174  PAUL    AND    THE    ESSEXES. 

costal  type,  before  they  could  join  those  who  first 
believed  in  Jesus  as  the  antitype  of  the  Paschal  omer. 
On  that  Pentecostal  day,  the  tenth  day  after  the  ascen- 
sion of  Jesus,  according  to  the  Acts,  '  about  three 
thousand  souls '  were  added  to  the  first  association,  and 
soon  after  this  '  the  number  of  the  men  was  about 
five  thousand.' l  If  the  Apostles  had  been  believers  in 
the  Messianic  doctrines  of  Stephen,  they  could  hardly 
have  remained  at  Jerusalem  whilst  the  followers  of 
Stephen  were  scattered  abroad.  Had  they  regarded 
Jesus  not  as  the  anointed  man,  the  son  of  David  and 
Son  of  God  of  Messianically  interpreted  prophecies, 
but  had  the  Apostles  regarded  him  as  the  anointed 
Angel,  of  whom  the  Scriptures  before  the  deportation 
to  Babylon  say  nothing,  they  might  have  been  accused, 
like  Stephen,  of  having  spoken  '  blasphemous  words  ' 
against  the  holy  place  and  the  law. 

The  assertion  shall  now  be  more  minutely  con- 
firmed, that  there  was  an  essential  difference  between 
the  doctrines  of  the  twelve  Apostles  and  those  of 
Stephen  about  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  We  have  already 
seen  that  if  the  twelve  Apostles  did,  like  Stephen, 
believe  in  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah,  it  would  be 
apparently  inexplicable  why  there  should  be  no  trace 
in  the  first  three  Gospels  of  Jesus  having  recognised 
such  a  doctrine,  on  which  all  Scriptures  possibly  com- 
posed before  the  deportation  to  Babylon  are  silent. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  identity  of  the 
Messianic  conceptions  of  Paul  and  those  of  Stephen. 
We  shall  see  that  when  Paul  refers  to  Christ  as  the 
spiritual  Eock  which  followed  the  Israelites,  he  points 
to  the  Amrel  who  had   been  with   the   fathers  in   the 


1  It  is  curious  that  the  Esaenie  corporation  is,  by  Josephus,  reported  to 
have  numbered  about  4,000  associates,  and  that  the  appointment  of  deacons 
is  connected  with  the  days  when  the  number  of  disciples  was  multiplied,  as 
if  these  had  been  in  great  part  Hellenists,  among  whom  we  may  assume 
Therapeuts. 


Paul's  conversion.  175 

wilderness,  and  that  he  identifies  Jesus  with  that 
Angel  as  Stephen  had  done.  Paul  acknowledges  that 
during  the  persecution  which  arose  about  Stephen 
he  accepted  the  faith  which  once  he  destroyed.  On 
his  way  to  Damascus,  with  the  dying  words  of  Stephen 
still  ringing  in  his  ears,  impressed  by  the  martyr's  vision 
of  Jesus,  of  the  Angel-Messiah  standing  at  the  right  hand 
of  God,  Paul  had  also  a  vision.  Suddenly  a  light  from 
heaven  shone  about  him,  he  fell  to  the  ground,  and 
heard  a  voice  saying  unto  him,  '  Saul,  Saul,  why  perse- 
cutest  thou  me  ?  '  Using  the  word  of  Stephen,  he  at 
once  addressed  the  speaker  from  heaven  as  'Lord,' 
whereupon  he  was  told  that  it  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
who  had  appeared  to  him.  Not  having  been  prepared, 
as  Paul  was  by  Stephen,  the  men  that  were  with  him, 
though  they  saw  the  light,  '  heard  not  the  voice  '  of 
him  that  spake  to  the  conscience-stricken  persecutor  of 
Stephen's  Lord.  Nor  were  Paul's  companions  blinded 
by  the  light  which  they  saw,  but  they  led  Paul  by  the 
hand  to  Damascus,  the  place  appointed  him  in  the 
vision.  After  having  been  blind  for  three  days,  one 
Ananias,  a  '  disciple  '  of  Jesus,  came  unto  him  by  a 
Divine  command  communicated  in  a  vision,  and  said, 
'  Brother  Saul,  receive  thy  sight,'  and  at  the  same  hour 
Saul  looked  up  upon  him.  His  sight  had  returned,  and 
he  was  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  which  reason 
Ananias  had  been  sent  by  Jesus.  Ananias  announced 
to  him  that  the  God  of  the  fathers  had  chosen  him 
that  lie  should  know  his  will  and  see  '  that  Just  One,' 
that  he  should  hear  the  voice  of  his  mouth,  and  be  his 
witness,  being  baptized  and  having  his  sins  washed 
away.  This  water-baptism  was  regarded  by  John  the 
Essene  as  the  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  Paul 
received  through  the  mediation  of  Ananias  at  the  bid- 
ding of  Jesus. 

As  Paul  followed   Stephen  in  calling  the  speaker 
from  heaven  '  Lord,'  so  Ananias  called  him,  like  Stephen, 


170  PAUL   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

'  the  Just  One.'  As  did  John  the  Baptist  and  all  the 
Essenes,  Ananias  regarded  water-baptism  as  a  type  of  the 
washing  away  of  sins,  by  the  Messianic  baptism  with 
the  Holy  Ghost.  We  are  therefore  led  to  expect,  that 
Ananias,  who  is  designated  as  '  a  devout  man  according 
to  the  law,  having  a  good  report  of  all  the  Jews '  at 
Damascus,  may  have  represented  the  Judaism  of  the 
Essenes,  who  neither  accepted  circumcision  nor  the 
Temple-ritual  with  its  sacrifices,  but  who  preached 
righteousness  by  faith  in  the  Angel-Messiah.  According 
to  Paul's  own  narrative,  Ananias  was  instrumental  in 
God's  revealing  his  '  Son '  in  the  heart  of  him  who  had 
been  the  chief  instrument  in  persecuting  the  believers 
in  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah. 

It  can  be  proved,  from  a  statement  transmitted  by 
Josephus,  that  soon  after  the  time  of  Paul's  conversion, 
a  Jew  called  Ananias,  who  had  come  to  Adiabene,  one 
of  the  Mesopotamian  kingdoms,  there  preached  righ- 
teousness not  by  the  works  of  the  law  but  by  faith,  as 
Paul  did  ;  whilst  another  Jew  at  Adiabene  denied  that 
this  was  a  purer  faith,  and  insisted  on  the  works  of  the 
law.  It  was  '  upon  the  death  of  King  Agrippa,'  or 
about  the  year  a.d.  44,  that  is,  at  the  utmost  three 
years  after  Paul  had  met  Ananias  of  Damascus,  that  a 
Jewish  merchant  Ananias  said  to  King  Izates  of  Adia- 
bene, '  that  he  might  worship  God  without  being  cir- 
cumcised, even  though  he  did  resolve  to  follow  the 
Jewish  law  entirely,  which  worship  of  God  was  of  a 
superior  nature  to  circumcision.'  Yet  another  Jew, 
Eleazar,  '  who  was  esteemed  very  skilful  in  the  learning 
of  his  country,'  persuaded  Izates  to  be  circumcised,  by 
showing  him  from  the  law  what  great  impiety  he  would 
be  guilty  of  by  neglecting  this  Divine  command.  Jose- 
phus, who  had  probably  passed  three  years  as  an  Essenic 
novice  with  Banus,  adds  that  God  preserved  Izates  from 
all  dangers,  demonstrating  thereby,  that  '  the  fruit  of 
piety  (the   '  chassidout '  of  the   Essenes   or  Assidreans) 


AXAXIAS   OF    DAMASCUS    AND    OF   ADIABENE.  177 

does  not  perish,  as  to  those  that  have  regard  to  him  and 
fix  their  faith  upon  him  only.'1 

Ananias  may  have  gone  from  the  commercial  city  of 
Damascus  to  Adiabene ;  and  this  merchant-missionary, 
who  reminds  ns  of  Mahomed,  may  have  been  the  same 
'  disciple '  of  Jesus  who  very  shortly,  at  the  utmost  only 
a  few  years  before,  had  been  the  instrument  of  Paul's 
conversion  in  the  street  called  Straight.  This  possible 
identity  is  confirmed  in  a  remarkable  manner  by  the 
merchant  Ananias  at  Adiabene  having  proclaimed  the 
same  fundamental  truths  which  the  disciple  Ananias  at 
Damascus,  and  afterwards  Paul,  preached.  At  all  events, 
it  is  proved  by  this  narrative,  that  about  the  time  of 
Paul's  conversion  two  parties  opposed  each  other  among 
the  Jews ;  and  that  the  one  party,  represented  by  one 
who  seems  to  have  been  an  Essene,  whilst  being  a  disciple 
of  Jesus,  taught  the  doctrine,  later  promulgated  by  Paul, 
about  righteousness  without  the  deeds  of  the  law,  espe- 
cially without  circumcision. 

This  higher  kind  of  Judaism,  this  deeper  knowledge 
or  gnosis,  cannot  be  asserted  to  have  been  recognised 
and  practised  by  any  party  in  Israel,  except  by  the 
Essenes.  Even  of  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  this  cannot 
be  proved.  Such  was  the  higher  Judaism  which  the 
Essenes  had  by  allegorical  explanations  harmonised  with 
Mosaic  writings,  and  it  was  openly  declared  in  the 
presence  of  Paul  by  Ananias  of  Damascus.  We  may 
with  almost  certainty  assume  that  Ananias  of  Damascus 
was  an  Essenic  disciple  of  Jesus,  for  we  know  that  lie, 
like  Stephen,  regarded  him  as  the  Angel-Messiah  who 
was  expected  by  the  Essenes  only,  and  to  whom,  there- 
fore, Ananias,  like  Stephen,  must  have  belonged.  It 
cannot  be  shown,  nor  is  it  at  all  probable,  that  Ananias, 
as  the  human  instrument  in  the  conversion  of  Paul, 
stood  in  any  connection  with  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem, 
with  Peter,  and  'the  other  Jews,'  as  Paul  calls  them, 

1  Jos.  Anliq.  xx.  2. 

X 


178  PAUL   AND    THE   ESSENES. 

who  solemnly  declares  to  have  been  '  independent '  of 
them,  and  that  they  taught  him  '  nothing  new '  when, 
seventeen  years  after  his  conversion,  he  met  them  at 
Jerusalem.1 

The  scattered  Hellenists  '  went  everywhere  preach- 
ing the  word,'  some  going  as  far  as  Phoenicia,  Cyprus, 
and  Antioch,  preaching  '  to  Jews  only,'  that  is,  probably 
to  such  who,  like  the  Essenes  of  Judaea,  excluded  the 
Gentiles,  whilst  others  in  that  city  '  spake  unto  the 
Grecians,'  or  Greek-speaking  Jews  who  admitted  Gen- 
tiles, 'preaching  the  Lord  Jesus.'2  This  statement  in 
the  Acts,  which  distinguishes  Hebrew  Jews  from  Greek 
Jews,  tends  to  support  the  view  we  wish  to  establish, 
that  '  the  persecution  that  arose  about  Stephen '  was 
directed  chiefly,  though  not  solely,  against  Grecians 
who  were  Therapeuts,  whose  doctrine  about  the  Angel- 
Messiah  Stephen  had  applied  to  Jesus,  whether  he  was 
the  first  to  do  so  or  not.  For,  as  in  Antioch  some  of 
those  persecuted  preached  to  Jews  only,  being  particu- 
larists  like  the  Essenes  of  Judaea,  so  there  were  others  in 
that  city  among  those  who  were  persecuted  because  of 
Stephen,  who  preached  like  him  '  the  Lord  Jesus '  to 
Greek-speaking  Jews  or  Hellenists,  among  whom  there 
probably  were  Alexandrians  and  universalist  Thera- 
peuts. The  Hand  of  the  Lord — his  Spirit  was  with  these 
preachers  at  Antioch,  so  that  a  great  number  believed. 
These  two  parties  among  the  scattered  Jews  at  Antioch, 
we  distinguish  as  Essenes  of  Palestine  who  admitted 
Jews  only,  and  as  Therapeuts  who  also  admitted  Gen- 
tiles. Among  them  there  existed  the  same  difference 
as  between  the  two  Jewish  teachers  at  Adiabene  and 
between  the  two  principal  prophets  of  Antioch,  Barna- 
bas and  Paul.  The  Church  at  Antioch,  where  the 
disciples  were  first  called  Christians,  was  founded  in 
absolute  independence  of  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem, 
and  the  same  was  the  case  with  Paul's  conversion.    The 

1  Gal.  i.  1G:  ii.  (3.  *  Actg  xi-  19_oo. 


ANOTHER  AND  YET  NOT  ANOTHER  GOSrEL.      179 

Twelve  were  not  scattered  when  certain  (Essenic?) 
disciples — when  followers  of  Stephen — went  to  Antioch, 
and  the  Apostles  were  '  all '  afraid  of  Paul  when  Barnabas 
introduced  him  to  them. 

In  a  certain  sense  Paul  declares  his  Gospel  to  be 
another  and  yet  '  not  another  '  or  '  not  a  second.'  The 
Gospel  which  Paul  announced  was  certainly  and  essen- 
tially another  than  that  which  was  preached  by  the 
twelve  Apostles,  if  it  can  be  proved  that  Paul  has 
applied  to  Jesus  the  Essenic  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  on  which  the  pre-Babylonian  Scriptures  and 
the  first  three  Gospels  observe  a  mysterious  silence. 
From  this  it  follows  that  Jesus  cannot  have  approved 
of  this  doctrine.  But  if  Jesus,  who  had  chosen  the 
Twelve,  was  the  Angel-Messiah  who  had  revealed  him- 
self to  Paul,  this  Apostle's  Gospel  could  in  a  certain 
sense  not  be  another,  though  a  second,  inasmuch  as 
the  author  of  both  Gospels  was  asserted  to  be  the  same 
individual.  Only  the  assumption  that  the  Twelve  did 
not  believe  in  Jesus  as  the  incarnate  Angel,  and  the  fact 
that  Paul,  like  Stephen  and  Ananias,  did  so,  seems  to 
enable  us  to  explain  their  fears  of  Paul  when  they  first 
came  in  contact  with  him.  Their  fear  could  not  have 
been  caused  by  a  doubt  whether  he  really  had  become 
a  follower  of  Stephen,  had  accepted  the  faith  which 
once  he  destroyed.  It  will  become  more  and  more 
probable,  if  not  certain,  that  the  Apostles  feared  Paul 
because  he  had  become  an  earnest  and  zealous  convert 
of  the  new  faith  in  an  Angel-Messiah,  which  Stephen 
had  perhaps  first  publicly  proclaimed. 

It  was  among  the  Hellenists  that  Paul  preached  first, 
on  his  return  from  Antioch  to  Jerusalem,  as  if  he 
expected  to  meet  with  more  sympathy  among  them 
than  among  the  Hebrews,  and,  we  may  assume,  among 
the  disciples  of  Jesus  who  looked  to  the  Twelve  as 
their  guides.  No  more  weight  can  be  laid  on  the 
statement  that  the  Hellenists  wished  to  kill  him  and 

n  2 


180  PAUL   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

that  '  brethren  '  (the  Apostles  ?)  got  him  away,  than  on 
the  statement  that  Paul  went  in  and  out  with  the 
Apostles  who  were  all  afraid  of  him,  and  that  lie 
'  freely '  or  boldly  declared  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
that  is,  of  the  Angel-Messiah.  Both  may  be  attributed 
to  the  compromising  tendency  of  the  Acts. 

The  Essenic  element  in  the  Church  at  Antioch, 
which  was  independent  of  that  at  Jerusalem,  and  to 
which  Paul  was  introduced  by  Barnabas,  is  confirmed 
by  the  undeniably  Essenic  character  of  the  Epistle  of 
Barnabas,  which  the  Fathers  attribute  unanimously  to 
the  Apostle  of  this  name.  We  shall  return  to  this 
subject.  Another  of  the  prophets  of  this  Church  was 
Maiiaen,  who  had  been  brought  up  with  Herod,  and 
whom  we  may  safely  identify  with  the  Essenic  prophet 
Menahem,  who  was  at  school  with  the  tetrarch  at 
Borne  and  predicted  his  future,  according  to  Josephus. 
If  Paul,  another  of  the  prophets  of  Antioch,  can  be 
proved  from  his  own  writings  to  have  attributed  to 
Jesus,  like  Stephen,  and  almost  in  the  same  words,  the 
exclusively  Essenic  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  then 
the  Essenic  element  in  the  Antiochian  Church  will  have 
been  proved  as  an  historical  fact. 

The  names  of  all  Hellenistic  deacons  are  of  Greek 
origin.  After  Stephen  the  Acts  name  Philip,  who  was 
also  called  the  Evangelist.  He  had  prophesying 
daughters,  and  to  him,  as  to  Stephen,  '  the  Angel  of 
the  Lord '  appeared,  that  is,  the  Angel-Messiah  of  the 
Essenes  and  Therapeuts.  There  are  some  traits  in  the 
transmitted  narrative  about  Philip  which  tend  to  con- 
firm the  connection  of  some  Hellenists  with  Therapeuts. 
Of  those  who  had  been  scattered  '  because '  of  Stephen — 
because  of  the  preacher  on  the  Angel-Messiah,  some  had 
gone  to  Samaria  and  there  preached  'the  Word.'  Here 
Philip  met  Simon,  a  born  Samaritan,  whose  ancestors 
seem  to  have  settled  there  from  Citium  in  Cyprus, 
according   to    statements   by  Josephus.       He  was   also 


SIMON   OF   SAMARIA   AND    THE    ESSENES.  181 

called  Magus — a  name  which  may  point  to  the  Mao-i, 
and  thus  to  the  Maga  or  Maya,  the  spiritual  power  of 
Eastern  tradition,  especially  of  the  Buddhists,  with 
whose  doctrines  we  have  connected  the  Essenes.  The 
Samaritans  are  by  Josephus  designated  as  Medo-Persian 
immigrants;  and  as  such  their  priests,  like  those  of  the 
Medes,  may  have  been  called  Magi,  by  others  if  not  by 
the  Samaritans.  Simon  the  Samaritan  might  therefore 
as  such  have  been  called  Magus. 

It  must  here  suffice   to   make  the   following  state- 
ments about  Simon  of  Samaria,  whom  all  the  Fathers 
regard  as  the  Father  of  heresy  in  the  Christian  Church, 
that  is,  of  a  false  gnosis  in  the  Apostolic  age.     He  was 
educated  at  Alexandria,  according  to  the  Clementines ; 
the   city  of  Sichem,  also   called  Sychar,  and   later  the 
city  of  Antioch,  were  the  centres  of  his  activity ;    his 
disciples,   like   those   of    Jesus   at  Antioch,  were    first 
called    by    the    name   of   Christians ;    the   disciples    of 
Simon  were  baptized ;  the  Initiated  among  them  had  to 
keep  certain  doctrines  secret ;  their  master  taught  them 
to  believe  in  Jesus  as  '  the  Word '  of  all  ages,  as  the 
Angel-Messiah   and  aboriginal  type  of  Humanity,  who 
came  to  the  earth  '  apparently  as  man,  but  not  as  man,' 
exactly  as  it  is  taught  by  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  ;  the 
Simonians   distinguished    a    spiritual    from    a  material 
world,  and  believed  in  an  allegorical  meaning  of  Scrip- 
ture ;    Simon   in    his    writings    referred    to    John    the 
Baptist  or  Essene  and  to  Paul's  Epistles ;  he  is  reported 
to  have  had  disputations  with  Peter  in  Eome,  where  a 
party  favourable  to  him   existed  before  his  arrival,  as 
was  the  case  with  Paul ;  the  Chrestus-  or  Christos-party 
among  the  Jews  in  this  city,  which  apparently  is  men- 
tioned at  exactly  the  same  time  when  Simon  is  said  to 
have   been   there,  may  be  regarded   as  the  party   of 
Simon  who  called  himself  a  Christian,  which  name  ori- 
ginated in  Antioch,  the  centre  of  his  activity.1 

1  The  name  Chrestus,  given  by  Suetonius,  is  by  Clement  of  Alexandria 


182  PAUL   AND   THE    ESSEXES. 

All  these  points  connect  Simon  of  Samaria  with  the 
Essenes.  Simon  is  in  the  Clementine  '  Becoomitions ' 
actually  called  a  disciple  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  thus 
is  directly  connected  with  the  Essenes.  His  reported 
education  in  Alexandria  would  therefore  lead  ns  to 
connect  him  with  the  Therapeuts  or  universalist  Essenes 
of  that  place,  with  which  we  have  connected  Stephen 
and  Paul.  If,  nevertheless,  the  Christian  Church  sepa- 
rated Simon  from  Paul  by  a  deep  gulph,  this  can  easily 
be  explained  by  the  not  far-fetched  supposition,  that 
after  the  Acts  had  removed  every  difference  between 
the  doctrines  of  Paul  and  those  of  the  Twelve,  Simon 
necessarily  was  made  the  scapegoat,  and  the  father  of 
all  false  doctrines  which  denied  the  humanity  of  Jesus. 
It  was  necessary  to  do  this,  after  the  recognition  by  the 
Church  of  the  Essenic-Paulinic  doctrine  about  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  although  Simon  Magus  had  also  taught  that 
doctrine.  It  formed  the  very  centre  of  the  disputations 
between  Simon  and  Peter  at  Borne,  according  to  the 
Clementines ;  and  what  Peter  had  openly  combated, 
could  not  be  suffered  to  appear  as  that  which,  like 
Simon,  Paul  had  taught.  This  compromise  was  facili- 
tated, as  we  shall  see,  by  Paul's  considerate  open 
acknowledgment  of  the  human  nature  of  Jesus,  and  it 
led  to  the  union  of  the  two  parties  among  the  disciples 
of  Jesus,  of  the  aboriginal  or  Jewish-Christian  party, 
which  had  regarded  Jesus  as  the  anointed  Man,  and  of 
the  Gentile-Christian  or  Therapeut  party,  which  recog- 
nised Jesus  as  the  anointed  Angel. 

Philip  the  deacon,  though  the  Acts  oppose  him  to 
Simon  of  Samaria,  probably  preached  the  Essenic  doc- 
trine of  the  Angel-Messiah  as  Simon  did,  for  Philip  is  in 
the  Acts  indirectly  connected  with  the  Angel-Messiah, 
because  witli  the  Angel  of  the  Lord.  According  to  the 
Angel's  direction,  Philip  was  on  his  way  to  Gaza  from 

given  as  Christos.     It  is  within  the  range  of  possibility  that  Simon   Niger, 
the  prophet  at  Antioch,  was  Simon  Magus. 


PHILIP    ASD    THE    ESSENES.  183 

Samaria,  probably  going  by  Hebron.  He  had  to  pass 
the  region  to  the  west  of  the  Dead  Sea,  where  the 
Kenites  or  Eechabites,  later  the  Essenes,  had  their 
settlements ;  the  country  where  John  the  Baptist  was 
born,  where  he  received  the  Divine  call,  and  probably 
began  to  baptize.  The  servant  of  the  Ethiopian  Candace, 
or  Queen,  returning  from  Jerusalem,  where  he  had  been 
worshipping,  was  told  by  Philip,  before  being  baptized, 
that  the  53rd  chapter  in  Isaiah  refers  to  Jesus.  This 
explanation  had  been  made  easier  by  the  possibly  Thera- 
peutic authors  of  the  Septuagint,  which  text  the  eunuch 
was  reading.  A  mystic  interpretation  had  here  been 
given  to  the  passage  which  refers  to  the  servant  of  God 
being  taken  away  '  through  tribulation  and  judgment.' 
Instead  of  this,  it  is  said,  that  '  in  his  humiliation  his 
judgment  was  taken  away.'  Again,  whilst  the  Hebrew 
text  says :  '  Who  of  his  contemporaries  considers  it, 
that  he  was  taken  away  from  the  land  of  the  living?'  the 
Greek  version  has,  '  Who  shall  declare  his  generation, 
for  his  life  is  taken  from  the  earth  ? '  Thus  already  here 
a  hidden  reference  could  be  found  to  Melchizedec,  whose 
generation  the  Scriptures  do  not  transmit.  This  passage 
could  be  held  to  suggest  that  Jesus  had  neither  father 
nor  mother ;  and  that  Jesus  Christ,  as  Simon  declared, 
was  the  Son  of  God,  but  not  the  son  of  David,  as  Philip's 
contemporary  the  Apostle  Barnabas  likewise  taught  in 
his  Epistle.  The  sudden  disappearance  of  Philip  would 
confirm  the  Ethiopian  in  his  mystic  conceptions. 

The  connection  of  Hellenists  with  Therapeuts  can  be 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that  Paul,  after  his  conversion  to 
the  faith  of  Stephen,  like  him,  preached  Jesus  as  the 
Angel-Messiah,  whom  in  Israel  only  the  Essenes  ex- 
pected :  a  doctrine  of  which  there  is  no  trace  in  the  first 
three  Gospels,  or  in  any  Scriptures  possibly  composed 
before  the  deportation  to  Babylon,  and  therefore  before 
the  birth  of  Gautama-Buddha,  the  Angel-Messiah  of 
Buddhists. 


184  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSEXES. 

The  Person  of  Christ. 

The  doctrinal  system  of  Paul  centres  in  his  doctrine 
of  Christ.  The  undoubtedly  genuine  Epistles  of  the 
Apostle  prove,  that  he  regarded  Jesus  as  an  incarnate 
Angel,  as  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  who  went  before  and 
followed  the  Israelites.  Almost  in  the  same  words 
in  which  Stephen  had  applied  to  Jesus  the  doctrine 
of  the  Angel-Messiah,  Paul  refers  to  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  spiritual  Eock  which  followed  the  Israelites  in  the 
wilderness.  In  the  account  of  the  shipwreck  recorded 
in  the  Acts,  Paul  describes  that  '  an  Angel  of  God '  had 
stood  by  him  in  the  night,  '  whose  I  am  and  whom  I 
serve.'  If  these  words  refer  not  to  God,  but  to  the. 
Angel,  the  latter  would  have  been  the  same  Angel  who 
had  appeared  to  him  at  the  time  of  his  conversion  to 
the  faith  of  Stephen,  that  is,  the  Angel  who  had  fol- 
lowed the  Israelites,  the  spiritual  Eock,  or  Christ.1  Since 
some  of  the  Greek-speaking  Jews,  like  Stephen,  believed 
in  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah  whom  the  Essenes  ex- 
pected, we  should  expect  even  on  this  ground  only,  that 
the  Apostle  who  says  he  was  to  the  Jews  a  Jew  and  to 
the  Greeks  a  Greek — that  the  great  Apostle  of  universal 
religion  would  aim  at  harmonising  in  his  Epistles  and 
addresses  the  diverging  Messianic  conceptions. 

There  was  no  reason  to  doubt  the  human  nature  of 
Jesus  Christ,  at  least  not  for  anyone  who  could  say,  with 
Paul,  that  Jesus  was  '  made  of  the  seed  of  David  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh,  and  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with 
power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resur- 
rection from  the  dead.'  This  might  have  been  said  by 
any  disciple,  even  by  one  who  did  not  believe,  as  Paul 
did,  in  Jesus  as  an  incarnate  Angel.  Although  this  is 
the  only  passage  in  Paul's  Epistles  where  the  human 
nature  of  Jesus  Christ  is  clearly  and  directly  acknow- 
ledged, yet  other  passages  imply  it.     Paul  had  especial 

1  1  Cor.  x.  4 ;  Acts  xxvii.  23 ;  comp.  Rom.  i.  9. 


THE    SECT    EVERYWHERE    SPOKEN    AGAINST.  185 

reasons  to  be  conciliatory  at  Home,  where  the  elders  of 
the  Jews  regarded  him  as  member  of  a  sect '  everywhere 
spoken  against.' 

It  is  more  difficult  to  refer  this  sect  to  that  of  the 
Christians  than  to  that  of  the  Essenes.  For,  whilst  the 
Christians  at  Jerusalem  under  James  had  not  there  been 
spoken  against,  since  they  had  exchanged  the  Synagogue 
for  the  Temple,  the  Essenes  were  by  all  the  Jews  spoken 
against  as  dissenters,  and  their  belief  in  an  Angel- 
Messiah  was  rejected  by  every  orthodox  Jew.  We  have 
no  right  to  assert  that  the  Jews  in  Eome  or  anywhere 
could  have  designated  Peter  or  any  of  the  Apostles  at 
Jerusalem  as  belonging  to  a  sect  '  everywhere  spoken 
against ' 

Whether  the  sect  in  question  was  the  Christian  or 
the  Essenian  one,  of  '  this  sect,'  to  which  Paul  belonged, 
there  were  members  in  Eome  before  Paul  arrived  there, 
for  'brethren'  had  gone  to  meet  him  at  the  Appian 
Forum.  Signs  are  not  absolutely  wanting  that  these 
'  brethren  '  were  Essenian  Christians.  According  to  the 
'  Clementines,'  Barnabas,  whom  we  regard  as  a  Levite 
who  had  become  an  Essene,  taught  in  Rome  and  in 
Alexandria  before  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus.  As  already 
stated,  the  genuine  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  though  worked 
over,  shows  that  he  denied  the  human  nature  of  Jesus, 
and  called  those  who  regarded  him  as  son  of  David 
4  wicked  Jews.'  The  '  Clementines,'  probably  composed 
in  Rome  and  reaching  back  to  the  first  century,  testify 
to  the  existence  of  an  Essenic  party  in  Rome,  with  which 
we  may  connect  the  party  which  Simon  had  in  that 
city.  If  this  Essenic  party  in  Rome,  which  Barnabas 
may  be  assumed  to  have  addressed  there,  denied  the 
human  nature  of  Jesus,  as  Barnabas  certainly  did,  Paul 
had  special  reasons  for  clearly  stating,  what  he  has  done 
in  no  other  Epistle  than  in  that  to  the  Romans,  that 
Jesus  is  the  son  of  David  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God. 

Paul  separated   from   Barnabas  on  the  question  of 


18C  PAUL    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

the  admittance  of  uncircumcised  Gentiles ;  but  another 
reason  for  his  separating  from  him  seems  to  have  been, 
that  Paul,  opposing  Barnabas  and  Simon  of  Samaria, 
insisted  on  the  recognition  of  the  human  nature  of  Jesus, 
notwithstanding  his  Divinity.  In  the  above-cited  passage 
of  his  Roman  Epistle,  the  Apostle  distinguishes  the 
fleshly  from  the  spiritual  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  in  such  a 
manner,  that  the  doctrine  of  Peter  about  the  man  Jesus 
anointed  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power  could  be 
well  harmonised  with  it.  It  may  be  assumed  that  Paul 
by  this  Epistle  laid  a  foundation  for  the  '  spiritual  gift,' 
that  is,  of  peace  in  the  Churches,  which  gift  he  wished 
to  bring  to  this  divided  Church,  founded  by  Peter 
according  to  tradition  transmitted  to  us,  and  in  which 
the  Jewish-Christian  element  predominated.  The  har- 
monious co-operation  of  Peter  and  Paul  in  Kome,  their 
common  martyrdom  in  this  city,  are  historical  facts ; 
and  it  may  be  asserted  that  the  diverging  opinions  of  the 
Twelve  and  of  Paul  on  the  person  of  Christ  lost  their 
party  character  by  Paul's  open  acknowledgment  of  the 
humanity  of  Jesus. 

Although  in  a  single  passage — assuming  its  correct 
transmission — Paul  clearly  insists  on  the  human  as  well 
as  on  the  implied  angelic  nature  of  Christ,  yet  his  coming 
in  the  flesh  is  explained  in  a  qualified  sense,  though  not 
altogether  drawn  in  question,  by  another  passage  in  the 
same  Epistle  to  the  Eomans  :  '  For  what  the  law  could 
not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God 
sending  his  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  (the)  sinful  flesh, 
and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh.'  Only  in  conse- 
quence of  the  sending  of  God's  own  Son  (the  Angel- 
Messiah),  in  the  likeness  of  (the)  sinful  flesh,  it  became 
possible  to  men  to  fulfil  the  righteousness  of  the  law,  to 
such  '  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spirit.' 
It  is  here  obviously  pointed  out,  that  since  the  fall  of 
the  first  Adam  humanity  has  either  not  possessed  the 
Spirit  of  God,  or  possessed  it  without  the  possibility  of 


THE    LIKENESS   OF   SINFUL    FLESH.  187 

obeying  it,  because  of  sin.  The  Apostle  seems  to  distin- 
guish the  sinful  flesh  from  the  not-sinful  flesh.  The 
Epistles  of  Paul  attest,  that  he  did  not  believe  it  possible 
for  even  the  most  perfect  of  men  to  walk  after  the 
Spirit,  to  be  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  become  sons  of 
God,  before  God's  sending  his  own  Son  and  with  him 
the  Spirit  of  Promise.  Paul  may  therefore  be  under- 
stood to  have  said,  that  God  sent  his  own  Son,  not  '  in 
the  sinful  flesh,'  but  '  in  the  likeness  of  the  sinful  flesh,' 
that  is,  into  a  new  kind  of  flesh,  into  such  flesh  as  had 
been  prepared  for  the  Angel  of  God,  so  that  the  latter 
might  keep  his  angelic  nature  after  his  assumption  of  a 
fleshy  nature  '  like  '  that  of  men,  '  yet  without  sin.' 1 

Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  God. 

As  the  '  Name '  or  Spirit  of  God  is  in  the  Angel  of 
the  Lord,  so  it  is  in  Jesus,  though,  according  to  the 
flesh,  he  is  the  son  of  David.  The  flesh  of  Christ  Jesus 
was  by  Paul  held  to  be  spiritualised  flesh,  as  Tertullian 
says—'  flesh  with  the  Spirit  of  God.'  Not  flesh  which 
wars  against  the  spirit,  not  the  flesh  of  fallen  man, 
which  had  been  un-spiritualised  by  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  time  of  the  flood,  not  the  flesh 
of  '  children  of  wrath,'  to  which,  the  Jews  '  even  as 
others,'  all  men  belonged,  up  to  the  time  of  the  incar- 
nation of  the  Son  of  God,  but  the  flesh  of  Christ  Jesus 
was  by  Paul  held  to  be  such  flesh  as  would  be,  and  was, 
directed  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Without  assistance  from 
heaven,  without  God's  unspeakable  gift  of  his  Holy 
Spirit,  which  was  brought  down  by  the  anointed  Angel 
of  God,  man  cannot  overcome  sin,  he  can  only  be  saved 
by  the  grace  of  God's  Spirit,  which  helps  his  infirmi- 
ties, and  makes  intercession  for  him.2 

1  Rom.  xii.  3,  4  ;  comp.  Tertull.  Be  Came  Christi,  3  ;  Ps.  xl.  7  ;  Hebr.  x. 
5  ;  iv.  15  ;  ix.  28  ;  where  '  a  body  '  is  inserted  instead  of  '  ears.' 

2  Rom.  viii.  26,  27,  34 ;  comp.  i.  4. 


188  PAUL   AXD   THE   ESSEXES. 

The  law  could  not  bring  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
was  c  added  because  of  transgression.'  Its  highest 
object  was  to  be  a  schoolmaster,  preparing  for  Christ. 
Not  only  till  the  law,  also  after  it,  '  there  was  sin  in  the 
world,'  until  '  faith  came,'  till  the  Angel  of  God  had 
brought  to  earth  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  that  those  who 
allow  themselves  to  be  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God  are 
children  of  God.  Sin  came  by  the  disobedience  of  the 
first  Adam,  grace  came  by  the  obedience  of  the  second 
Adam.  Faith  establishes  the  law,  inasmuch  as  the 
letter  that  killeth  is  interpreted  by  the  quickening  or 
life-giving  Spirit,  because  the  '  shameful '  system  of  keep- 
ing back,  which  has  existed  since  Moses,  has  been  laid 
aside.  Because  of  the  withdrawing  of  God's  Spirit, 
Adam  and  Eve  hid  themselves  from  '  the  presence  '  of 
God,  his  '  countenance  '  shone  no  more  upon  them  ;  the 
Spirit  of  God  did  '  not  always  strive '  or  remain  with 
fallen  man,  he  was  '  flesh,'  only  flesh,  flesh  without  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Even  Abraham  could  not  be  righteous, 
but  he  believed  God,  who  promised  the  future  blessing 
of  mankind  in  Abraham's  seed,  the  seed  to  whom  the 
promise  was  made. 

The  faith  of  Abraham  was  '  accounted  to  him  for 
righteousness,'  and  '  faithful  Abraham '  became  the 
father  of  those,  among  Gentiles  and  Jews,  who,  '  re- 
ceived the  spirit  by  the  hearing  of  faith,'  that  is,  '  the 
adoption  of  sons,'  in  consequence  of  which  God  sent 
'  the  Spirit  of  his  Son'  into  their  hearts,  and  redeemed 
their  bodies.  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  the  '  day '  when 
the  Angel  of  God  would  bring  back  the  Spirit  to  man- 
kind, would  bring  the  faith  which  should  '  afterwards 
be  revealed,'  after  the  Mosaic  law,  which  has  '  nothing 
to  do  with  faith.'  The  promised  faith  and  the  promised 
Spirit  of  God  came  by  the  Angel-Messiah,  the  second 
Adam,  who  was  a  '  quickening  spirit.'  Henceforth,  man 
has  become  '  spiritual,'  he  is  '  a  new  creature,'  he  belongs 
to  a  new  generation  of  men,  born  under  direct  celestial 


THE    LAW    AND    FAITH.  189 

influences,  he  stands  in  a  new  relation  to  God  through 
the  mediation  of  an  anointed  Angel. 

Paul  seems  to  have  held  that,  even  after  the  fall  of 
man,  he  was  possessed  of  reason  and  will,  but  not  of 
conscience.  What  was  to  become  life  and  light  in  man 
had  first  to  be  manifested  in  the  likeness  of  sinful,  be- 
cause un-spiritualised  flesh,  by  the  '  man  from  heaven,' 
by  the  incarnation  of  the  Word  from  the  beginning,  the 
Angel  of  God  in  whom  that  life  was.  His  glory,  as  of 
the  only  one  Son  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth, 
had  first  to  be  seen  by  man  in  '  the  face  of  Christ,'  before 
the  glorified  Son,  raised  by  God's  right  hand,  could 
receive  the  promise  of  the  Father  for  mankind,  the 
Spirit  to  be  poured  on  all  flesh.  That  Divine  Spirit  was 
intended  to  have  been  restored  by  the  Angel  of  God 
who  appeared  to  Moses,  and  whom  Paul  identifies  with 
Christ  Jesus,  as  Stephen  had  done  before  him.  Already 
then  the  incarnation  of  the  Angel-Messiah  might  have 
taken  place.  But  Israel  would  not  obey  Moses,  and 
resisted  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  it  did  when  Stephen,  '  full 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,'  revealed  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah. 
Even  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene  regarded  as  future 
the  coming  into  the  world  of  that  true  light  which 
lighteth  all  men.  The  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  or 
with  fire,  typified  by  water  baptism,  was  to  be  introduced 
by  the  Angel  of  God,  according  to  John's  expectation. 
The  disciples  of  John  had  not  even  heard  that  there  is 
a  Holy  Ghost.  God  had  not  yet  '  introduced  his  first- 
born into  the  world.' 

Nevertheless,  Paul  refers  to  the  passage  in  the 
Mosaic  Scriptures  about  the  Word  which  is  in  man's 
heart  that  he  may  do  it.  The  Apostle  states  that  '  faith,' 
that  is,  the  faith  which  should  be  revealed  after  the  law 
on  Sinai  in  the  fulness  of  time,  '  cometh  by  hearing, 
and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God,'  that  is,  as  we  shall 
see,  by  Christ,  the  spiritual  Bock,  by  the  Angel  which 
followed  the  Israelites,  by  the  Angel-Messiah.     Paul  is 


290  PAUL   AND   THE   ESSEXES. 

far  from  admitting  that  the  Word  is  an  innate  faculty  or 
spiritual  power  by  which,  man  willing,  the  sinfulness  of 
the  flesh  can  be  overcome,  that  the  Word  or  Spirit  of 
God  is  a  soul-saving  power  which  in  measure  man  has 
possessed  in  all  ages,  and  for  the  abiding  presence  of 
which  in  his  soul  David  prayed. 

The  passage  in  question,  the  only  one  in  which  Paul 
calls  Christ  the  Word  of  God,  is  by  him  explained  to  be 
a  prophecy  referring  to  the  coming  of  Christ  '  as  the 
end  of  the  law.'  The  '  Word  '  of  which  Moses  said  that 
it  need  not  be  brought  from  heaven  nor  beyond  the  sea, 
but  which  was  already  then  in  the  Israelites  that  they 
might  to  do  it,  that  Word  Paul  implies  to  have  been 
Christ.  This  Word  of  God,  or  Christ,  is  identical  with 
the  Angel-Messiah,  or  spiritual  Eock  which  followed 
the  Israelites.  Christ,  the  Word  of  God,  having  come 
down  '  from  heaven  '  need  not  be  '  brought  down,'  and 
after  his  resurrection  he  need  not  be  '  brought  up 
(again)  from  the  dead.'  When  Moses  uttered  those 
words,  he  spoke  in  the  spirit  about  '  the  word  of  faith  ' 
which  Paul  preached.  The  word  of  which  Moses  said 
that  it  was  then  in  the  '  mouth '  of  the  Israelite,  Paul 
explains  to  be  the  confession  of '  the  Lord  Jesus  '  with 
the  mouth ;  again,  the  word  of  which  Moses  said  that 
it  was  then  in  the  '  heart '  of  the  Israelite,  and  that  it 
depended  on  him  whether  he  followed  it  and  lived,  or 
did  it  not  and  died,  this  word  Paul  explains  as  the  belief 
in  the  heart,  that  God  has  '  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead.' 
This  new  belief  the  Apostle  designates  as  the  condi- 
tion of  salvation.1  A  real  masterpiece  of  allegorical 
interpretation  of  Scripture  in  the  Essenic  spirit,  if  not 
derived  from  Essenic  tradition,  as  our  scheme  seems  to 
suggest. 

If  Israel's  fathers  '  always  resisted  the  Holy  Ghost,' 
as  Stephen  declared,  and  if  the  Holy  Ghost  had  been 
withdrawn  after  the  fall,   as   Paul  implies,  and   as  the 

1  Horn.  x.  4-21  ;  Dcut.  xxx.  11-20. 


THE    CELESTIAL    MAN.  191 

narrative  about  the  Flood  confirms,  then  the  holiest 
Israelite  could  only  have  resisted  an  innate  germ  of 
good,  a  moral  sensitiveness  which,  without  preparing 
him  for  spiritual  influences  from  above,  might  have 
prevented  his  yielding  to  the  germ  of  evil.  What 
Moses  says  about  the  Word  in  the  heart  of  man,  can 
only  be  referred  to  an  inborn  power  of  good.  In  all 
Scriptures  attributed  to  him  there  is  nothing  which 
points  to  the  future  coining  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  a 
future  life.  The  Israelite  was  placed  by  Moses  under 
the  stern  and  ritualistic  discipline  of  the  written  law, 
which  took  no  cognisance  of  conscience.  For  the  law 
treats  man  as  if  he  had  no  conscience  ;  and  the  object  of 
the  lawgiver  seems  to  have  been  the  formation  of  a  con- 
science by  moral  precepts,  and  by  imposing  and  sugges- 
tive ceremonies.  But  Paul  attributes  to  Moses  the  in- 
tention, in  the  passage  above  quoted,  to  point  to  Jesus 
as  by  God  raised  from  the  dead,  and  thus  determined  to 
be  the  Son  of  God,  or  the  Angel-Messiah,  '  according  to 
the  spirit  of  holiness.'  The  Apostle  regards  Jesus  as 
the  restorer  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  of  the  state  of 
things  which  existed  in  Paradise. 

Between  the  time  of  the  first  and  the  manifestation  of 
the  second  Adam  man  could  not  be  saved.  By  the  first 
or  terrestrial  '  man '  came  death,  by  the  second  or  celes- 
tial '  Man  '  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  Thus  Paul  has 
paved  the  way  for  asserting  the  absolute  necessity  of  a 
supernatural  Messiah,  an  Angel-Messiah,  as  the  Saviour 
of  mankind.  The  Messiah,  who  was  to  spiritualise  flesh 
and  blood  and  to  save  it  from  corruption,  Christ  Jesus, 
is  the  incarnate  Word  or  Angel  of  the  Lord  who  was  with 
Moses  and  the  fathers  in  the  wilderness,  '  the  spiritual 
Eock  which  followed  the  Israelites.' 

We  saw,  that  already  ancient  Eabbinical  tradition 
calls  the  Angel  of  God  the  Eock.  This  figurative  language 
here  used  refers  to  the  passages  in  Exodus,  where  it  is  said 
that  *  the  Angel  of  God,  which  went  before  the  camp  of 


192  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSEXES. 

Israel,  removed  and  went  behind  them  ;  and  the  pillar  of 
the  cloud  went  from  before  their  face,  and  stood  behind 
them,  ...  it  gave  light  by  night  to  them.'  '  Behold,  I 
send  an  Angel  before  thee,  to  keep  thee  in  the  way,  and  to 
bring  thee  into  the  place  which  I  have  prepared.  Be- 
ware of  him,  and  obey  his  voice,  provoke  him  not ;  for 
he  will  not  pardon  your  transgressions  ;  for  my  Name  is 
in  him.' :  What  is  said  of  the  fiery  pillar  is  said  of  the 
•Angel  who  followed  Israel.  The  Angel  is  described  as 
the  conveyancer  of  God's  '  Name,'  which  the  Aaro.nites 
were  ordered  to  '  put  upon '  the  children  of  Israel  by 
pronouncing  the  blessing.  '  Thus  '  God  would  '  bless 
them.'  In  this  and  in  similar  passages  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  the  '  Name '  means  Spirit  or  Word. 
The  symbol  of  the  Spirit  or  Word  was  fire,  which  was  oh 
all  altars  where  God  recorded  his  Name  and  blessed 
Israel.  For  this  reason  the  fiery  serpent  which  Moses 
made  of  brass 2  is  designated  as  the  Word  of  God  in  the 
Book  of  Wisdom,  where  the  Word  of  God  is  also  com- 
pared with  lightning,  to  which  the  original  figurative 
meaning  of  the  serpent  as  fire  from  heaven  referred. 
The  Angel  in  whom  is  the  Name  of  God  is  therefore 
designated  as  the  conveyancer  of  the  Spirit  or  Word  of 
God,  and  for  this  reason  the  ministers  of  God  are  con- 
nected with  or  symbolised  by  flaming  fire. 

We  saw  that,  according  to  the  Targum,  it  was  the 
Memra  or  Word  which  followed  the  Israelites,  from 
which  it  follows  that,  according  to  Jewish  pre-Christian 
(Essenic  ?)  tradition,  the  Angel  of  God  was  the  Word  of 
God.     He  was  called  '  the  Eock  of  the  Church  of  Zion.' 

Paul  has  designated  the  Angel-Messiah  as  the  con- 
veyancer of  the  Spirit  of  God.  This  interpretation  is  in 
harmony  with  the  cardinal  point  of  Paul's  doctrine 
about  the  Spirit  of  God,  asserted  to  have  been  absent 
from  mankind  after  the  fall  of  the  first  and   before   the 

1  Ex.  adv.  10,  20  ;  xxiii.  20,  21 ;  xx.  24;  Num.  vi.  27. 

2  In  Hebrew,  Nacliash  means  '  brass  '  as  well  as  'serpent.' 


THE   ANGEL-MESSIAH   THE   WORLDS   CREATOR.  193 

coming  of  the  second  Adam  from  heaven.  But  why- 
does  Paul  call  the  Angel  or  Word  of  God,  that  is,  Christ, 
the  spiritual  Bock,  as  Targumists  or  authorised  inter- 
preters of  Holy  Writ  had  probably  done  before  him  ? 

According  to  Philo,  the  Word  of  God  was  figura- 
tively represented  by  the  sun,  which  Messianic  symbol 
took  the  place  of  the  fire-symbol,  and  was  represented 
by  the  central  lamp  of  the  Mosaic  candlestick.  In  the 
midst  of  the  same  a  vision  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John 
describes  the  Word  of  God  or  Christ ;  and  we  have 
connected,  in  another  place,  this  symbolism  of  John 
and  Philo  with  visions  in  the  Books  of  Ezekiel  and  of 
Zechariah,  as  well  as  these  with  the  Agni-sacrifice  in 
the  Kig-Veda.  The  seven  lamps  of  the  candlestick,  we 
are  told,  referred  to  sun,  moon,  and  five  planets,  and 
thus  we  may  connect  them  with  the  seven  pillars  of  the 
House  or  Church  of  the  Wisdom  of  God,  that  is,  of 
Christ,  who  is  by  this  symbolism  identified  with  the 
Word  or  Wisdom  of  God.  The  seven  pillars  of  the 
House  of  Wisdom  were  '  hewn  out '  from  the  rock,  as 
Israel  was  hewn  from  its  great  ancestors  Abraham  and 
Sarah,  who  are  by  Isaiah  compared  to  a  rock.1  But  the 
rock  from  which  mankind  has  been  hewn  is  the  great 
celestial  progenitor,  the  aboriginal  type  of  humanity, 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  the  Angel-Messiah,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  '  by '  whom  all  men  are,  according  to 
Paulinic  doctrine. 

We  now  understand  why  Paul  attributes  the  creation 
of  the  world  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Word  of  God.  Also 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  it  is  said  that  the  worlds 
were  framed  by  the  Word  of  God.  Paul  writes  :  '  For 
though  there  be  that  are  called  gods,  whether  in  heaven 
or  in  earth  (as  there  be  gods  many  and  lords  many), 
but  to  us  there  is  but  one  God,  the  Father,  of  whom 
are    all  things,   and  we  in  him,  and  one  Lord    Jesus 

1  Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes  bei  alien  Xationen,   112-114;    Fro  v.  ix.  1; 
Is.  li.  1. 


104  PAUL   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

Christ,  by  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  by  him.'  Ac- 
cording to  Paul's  gospel  it  was  by  Christ's  will  and 
purpose,  by  his  grace,  that  '  though  he  was  rich  '  yet 
for  our  sakes  '  he  was  (became)  poor,'  that,  through  his 
poverty  we  might  be  rich.  By  coming  from  heaven  to 
earth,  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  Christ  Jesus  gave 
up  the  angelic  and  '  divine  form '  or  '  form  of  God,'  and 
took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant.1 

Paul  has  accepted,  developed,  applied,  and  promul- 
gated the  Essenic  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  as 
bringer  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  mankind.  It  cannot 
be  proved,  or  even  rendered  probable,  that  an  Angel- 
Messiah,  and  he  as  the  bringer  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
was  expected  by  any  body  of  Israelites,  except  by  the 
Essenes  and  Therapeuts.  With  the  latter  we  connected 
some  of  the  Eabbis,  and  those  Targumists  whose  doctrines 
have  been  transmitted  to  us  by  the  Targumim.  These 
Essenic  doctrines  were  certainly  proclaimed  by  Stephen, 
the  first  of  the  deacons  among  the  Hellenists,  or  Greek- 
speaking  Jews,  some  of  whom  seem  to  have  belonged 
to  the  Therapeuts  of  Alexandria.  If  Stephen,  the  first 
provable  preacher  of  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah,  was 
a  Therapeut,  we  understand  why  Paul,  having  gone 
over  to  his  faith,  promulgated  this  doctrine  almost  in 
the  very  words  of  Stephen,  and  why  the  Essenes  of 
Judasa,  who  excluded  all  Gentiles,  regarded  Paul  as 
their  enemy,  after  that  he  represented  the  doctrines  of 
the  universalist  Essenes  of  Egypt,  or  of  the  Thera- 
peuts. 

Though  Jesus  had  acknowledged  the  principle  of 
universality,  the  twelve  Apostles  did  not  at  once  openly 
recognise  it.  But  the  most  essential  difference  between 
the  preaching  of  Jesus  and  of  his  Apostles  on  one  side, 
and  the  gospel  of  Paul  on  the  other,  centred  in  that  of 
the  Angel-Messiah,  which  Jesus  had  not  acknowledged 

1  Hehr.xi.  3;  1  Cor.  viii.  5,  0 ;    comp.  Ps.  xxxiii.  6  ;    2  Oor.   viii.  9; 
Phil.  ii.  6. 


THE   TWO    PARTIES   IN   THE    CHRISTIAN    CHURCH.         195 

or  applied  to  himself.  If  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  had 
preached  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  the  first 
three  Gospels  would  show  that  Jesus  did  reveal  himself 
as  such.  The  silence  of  the  first  Evangelists  about  this 
new  Messianic  doctrine  can  no  longer  be  explained  by 
the  supposition  that  this  doctrine  belonged  to  a  secret 
doctrine,  forbidden  by  the  Jewish  authorities.  For  the 
Eastern  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  which  had  in 
the  last  instance  been  applied  to  Gautama-Buddha, 
must  have  belonged  to  the  secret  doctrine  of  the 
Essenes,  since  this  doctrine  cannot  possibly  be  separated 
from  other  doctrines  and  rites  which  the  Essenes  have 
provably  derived  from  the  East.  If  the  doctrine  of  the 
Angel-Messiah  has  by  the  Essenes  first  been  applied  to 
Jesus,  and  not  till  after  his  resurrection  on  ;  the  third 
day  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  as  we  shall  try  to 
prove,  then  it  will  be  explained  why  Paul  derives  from 
Christ's  resurrection  the  testimony  for  his  being  the  Son 
of  God,  and  therefore  for  his  revelation  as  the  spiritual 
Bock  or  Angel  of  God.  It  looks  as  if,  until  his  resur- 
rection, this  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah  had  not 
been  applied  to  Christ  Jesus. 

The  probable  connection  of  Stephen,  and  therefore 
of  Paul,  with  the  Essenes,  has  been  confirmed  by  the 
equally  probable  connection  of  Ananias  and  others  with 
the  Essenes;  yet  this  new  standpoint  for  the  critical 
examination  of  Paul  and  of  his  doctrine  requires  fur- 
ther support.  In  the  first  place,  we  shall  trace  back  to 
an  Essenian  source  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  resurrection 
on  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,  as  taught 
by  Paul,  and  also  his  doctrine  oh  the  atonement ;  and  we 
shall  then  consider  whether  the  '  high  probability  '  ex- 
pressed by  Eusebius  can  be  sufficiently  established,  that 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Therapeutic  order  have  been  used 
in  the  composition  of  Pauline  Epistles,  especially  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  that  they  have  also  been 
utilised  for  the  composition  of  the  Gospels  transmitted 

o  2 


196  PAUL   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

to  us.  Although  this  statement  of  the  church -historian 
cannot  be  asserted  to  have  been  a  pure  invention,  yet 
hitherto  nothing  has  been  brought  forward  in  support 
of  it.  If  the  Bishop's  opinion  can  be  substantiated,  our 
argument  on  the  Essenic  source  of  Pauline  doctrines 
will  stand  on  firm  ground. 

Tlie  Resurrection  of  Christ. 

In  the  Old  Testament,  if  literally  interpreted,  there 
is  no  trace  either  of  an  expected  Angel-Messiah,  nor  of 
a  Messiah  who  should  visibly  rise  from  the  dead  and 
ascend  to  heaven.     We  saw  that  the  Essenes,  to  whom 
the  disciples  of  John  belonged,  expected   an  Angel  as 
Messiah,  and  that  they  tried  to  connect  their  new  Mes- 
sianic and  other  doctrines  with  those  of  Moses,  by    a 
figurative  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  attributed  to 
him.     Among  the  Essenic  Scriptures,  which,  according 
to  Eusebius,  have  been  used  by  the  Evangelists  and  by 
Paul,  there  probably  were  such  which  referred  to  the 
resurrection  of  the  Angel-Messiah  whom  they  expected. 
Many  disciples  of  John  or  Essenes   are  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  recorded  to  have  believed  in  Jesus,  possibly  as  the 
Angel-Messiah,  even   before  his   death,   although  John 
seems  to  have  died  without  such  belief,  according  to  the 
first  three  Gospels.    When  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians 
that  Jesus  rose  '  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scrip-, r 
tures,'  none  of  the  Gospels  transmitted  to  us  existed. 
The  Apostle,  therefore,  must  have  referred  to  the  Mosaic 
Scriptures,  at  least  according  to  their  allegorical  inter- 
pretation.    Such  figurative  interpretation  of  Scripture 
can  only  be  proved   to  have  existed   among  Essenes. 
From    this  it    already    results,    that  the  most   ancient 
historical  testimony  of  Christ's  resurrection  stands  in 
connection  with  the  Essenic  interpretation  of  Scripture. 
It  can  be  proved  that  Paul  referred  to  Moses  as   his 
original  authority  for  his  belief  in  the  divinely  caused 


'IDLE   TALES.'  197 

resurrection  of  Christ.  We  will  first  show,  that  the 
tradition  about  this  reported  event,  which  was  later  re- 
corded in  our  Gospels,  is  so  full  of  contradictions,  that 
it  cannot  possibly  have  been  the  source  for  that  which 
Paul  believed. 

It  is  well  known,  that  in  the  Gospel  after  Mark — the 
end  of  which,  from  the  8th  verse  of  the  last  chapter, 
has  been  added  later — no  appearances  of  the  risen  Jesus 
are  recorded.  Three  women  found  an  open  and  empty 
grave,  and  they  saw  on  the  right  side  a  young  man, 
clothed  in  a  white  garment,  who  announced  to  them 
the  resurrection  of  the  crucified  Jesus,  and  commis- 
sioned them  to  tell  his  disciples  and  Peter  that  they 
should  go  to  Galilee,  where  they  would  see  him.  But 
trembling  and  amazement  had  possession  of  them,  and 
they  said  nothing  to  any  man.  According  to  the 
account  in  Matthew,  instead  of  a  young  man  it  is  an 
Angel  of  the  Lord  who  made  the  same  announcement 
to  the  women,  and  gave  them  the  same  command,  after 
that,  preceded  by  an  earthquake,  he  had  descended 
from  heaven  and  rolled  back  the  stone  from  the  door 
and  sat  upon  it.  The  women  departed  quickly  to  bring 
the  disciples  word  ;  and  on  the  way  Jesus  met  them, 
whom  they  held  by  the  feet  and  worshipped.  This 
was  also  done  by  the  eleven  disciples  when  they  saw 
him  on  the  mountain  in  Galilee,  where  Jesus  had 
appointed  them  ;  but  some  doubted. 

According  to  Luke  the  glad  tidings  were  made 
known  to  the  women  at  the  grave  by  two  men  in 
shining  garments,  who  reminded  them  how  Jesus  had 
foretold  his  crucifixion  and  resurrection  on  the  third 
day.  The  words  of  the  women  seemed  to  the  eleven 
and  all  the  rest  as  '  idle  tales,'  and  they  believed  them 
not.  Nothing  is  said  of  their  going  to  Galilee  ;  and 
in  direct  opposition  to  this  command,  as  recorded  by 
Mark  and  Matthew,  it  is  recorded  in  the  Acts,  that  the 
risen  Messiah  had   commanded  the  Apostles  whom  he 


198  PAUL    AND    THE    ESSEXES. 

had  chosen,  that  they  should  not  depart  from  Jeru- 
salem, but  wait  for  the  promise  of  the  Father,  about 
which  he  had  spoken  to  them.  'Not  many  days 
hence,'  that  is,  after  the  forty  days,  of  which  the 
Gospels  say  nothing,  they  should  be  '  baptized  with  the 
Holy  Ghost.'  In  accordance  with  this  new  version 
Luke  relates  how  the  risen  Lord  appeared  at  different 
times  in  or  near  Jerusalem.  This  Evangelist  mentions 
in  one  passage  as  the  day  of  the  Messiah's  ascension 
the  third  day,  in  another  the  fortieth  day  after  the 
burial. 

In  the  place  of  the  young  man  in  Mark,  of  the 
Angel  in  Matthew,  and  of  the  two  men  in  Luke,  the 
fourth  Evangelist  mentions  two  angels  in  white,  sitting 
the  one  at  the  head  and  the  other  at  the  feet  where  the 
body  of  Jesus  had  lain.  Mary  Magdalene  having  com- 
municated to  them  the  cause  of  her  weeping. — her  not 
knowing  to  what  place  men  had  removed  her  Lord, 
on  her  turning  round  saw  Jesus  standing,  and  knew  not 
that  it  was  Jesus,  supposing  him  to  be  the  gardener* 
But  on  hearing  Jesus  call  her  Mary,  she  turned  herself* 
and  said  unto  him,  Eabboni,  which  is  to  say  Master* 
Thereupon  the  risen  Jesus  appeared  three  times  to  the 
disciples. 

The  fourth  and  the  third  Gospels  contain  the 
valuable  information  that  the  twelve  Apostles  had  not 
looked  forward  to  a  visible  resurrection  of  Jesus  from 
the  dead.  Luke  records  that  the  eleven  and  the  rest 
regarded  as  '  idle  tales '  what  the  women  reported  to 
have  seen  at  the  grave  of  Jesus,  and  therefore  did  not 
believe  them.  The  fourth  Evangelist  relates  that  Peter 
and  John  were  not  convinced  by  Mary  Magdalene, 
coming  from  the  open  and  empty  grave,  and  that  only 
after  having  run  to  the  grave,  and  seen  the  linen  clothes 
lying  about,  John  did  then  see  and  believe,  but  '  as  yet 
they  knew  not  the  Scriptures  that  lie  must  rise  again 
from  the  dead,'    The  fact  here  recorded  attests  that  Jesus 


A    NEW   TYPE    SOUGHT   AND    FOUND.  199 

had  not  predicted  his  resurrection  ;  and  it  explains  the 
other  fact,  attested  by  all  four  Gospels,  that  in  the  early 
morning  in  question  none  of  the  Apostles  had  gone  to 
the  grave  of  Jesus,  which  they  must  have  done  had  they 
expected  his  bodily  resurrection. 

The  first  Apostle  who  is  reported  to  have  believed 
in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  did  not  connect  at  once  with 
any  passage  in  the  Scriptures  the  unexpected  occur- 
rence. Even  John  had  to  learn  before  he  could  believe, 
if  he  ever  did,  what  Paul  believed  a  few  years  later,  that, 

*  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  Jesus  had  risen  from  the 
dead  on  '  the  third  day.'  Can  John,  or  any  other  of  the 
twelve  Apostles,  ever  have  believed  this  ? 

Since  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament,  even 
supposing  that  they  refer  to  the  death  of  the  Messiah, 
do  not  fix  the  day  of  the  year  in  which  it  should  take 
place,  and  since  these  Scriptures  certainly  do  not  refer 
to  the  day  of  his  resurrection,  Paul's  belief  presumes  that 
two  Mosaic  institutions,  typically  interpreted,  could  be 
referred  relatively  to  the  former  and  to  the  latter,  and 
that  the  days  connected  with  these  types  were  sepa- 
rated from  each  other  by  one  day.  These  two  typical 
institutions  can  have  been  no  other  than  the  slaying  of 
the  Paschal  lamb  on  the  14th  Nisan,  and  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  firstling-sheaf  or  Paschal  omer  on  the  16th 
Nisan.  If  it  is  only  according  to  the  narrative  in  the 
fourth  Gospel  that  Jesus  is  implied  to  have  been  cruci- 
fied on  the  14th,  and  to  have  risen  on  the  16th  Nisan. 
this  tradition  therein  recorded  harmonised  with  the 
solemn   statement   made  by  Paul  to  the  Corinthians : 

*  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all,  what  I  also  (among 
others)  received,'  that  is,  that  Jesus  died,  was  buried, 
and  rose  again  'the  third  day  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures.' 

On  the  above  assumption  it  would  further  follow 
that  the  tradition  about  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  on  the 
third  day  after  his  death,   as  recorded  in  the  Gospel 


200  PAUL   AXD   THE    ESSEXES. 

after  John,  was  unknown  to  Peter  and  John  in  the 
morning  of  the  16th  Nisan,  when  they  as  yet  knew  not 
the  Scriptures  that  Christ  must  rise  again  from  the 
dead.  Finally,  if  in  no  other  Gospel  than  in  the  fourth 
the  types  of  the  Paschal  lamb  and  of  the  Paschal 
oiner  are  represented  as  having  received  their  anti- 
types, the  one  type  by  the  death  of  Jesus  on  the  14th, 
and  the  other  by  his  resurrection  on  the  16th  Nisan,  it 
follows  conclusively  either  that  the  composers  of  the 
first  three  Gospels  erred  when  they  narrated  the  cruci- 
fixion of  Jesus  to  have  taken  place  on  the  loth  Nisan, 
or  that  the  tradition  about  the  date  of  this  event,  as 
recorded  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  is  not  historical.  It  can 
be  rendered  probable  that  this  tradition  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  was  invented,  sooner  or  later ,  for  the  purpose  of 
letting  it  appear  that  Jesus  was  the  antitype  of  the 
Paschal  lamb  and  of  the  Paschal  omer,  and  that  he  rose 
the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,  as  Paul  de- 
clared. From  whence  can  this  tradition  have  come, 
which  is  testified  by  Paul,  and  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  ? 

It  is  quite  certain  that,  according  to  the  first  three 
Evangelists,  Jesus  ate  the  Paschal  lamb  with  his  dis- 
ciples  on  the  14th  Nisan,  before  lie  suffered  on  the  15th 
Nisan  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  assume  that  Matthew, 
Luke,  and  Mark  followed  an  erroneous  tradition  as  to 
these  dates.  These  Evangelists  knew  that  Jesus  was 
crucified  on  the  15th  Nisan,  the  day  after  the  slaying 
and  eating  of  the  Paschal  lamb.  From  this  it  follows 
that  if  they  believed  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  on 
the  third  day,  that  day  must  have  been  the  17th  Nisan. 
If,  however,  we  assume  that  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke 
could  have  been  under  an  error  on  this  point,  and  that 
the  fourth  Evangelist  is  alone  right  when  he  clearly 
implies  that  the  crucifixion  took  place  already  on  the 
14th  Nisan,  it  would  follow  with  equal  force  that  if 
Jesus  rose  on  the  third  day,  he  did  so,  not  on  the   17th 


THE    THIRD    DAY.  201 

but  on  the  16th  Nisan.  The  different  statements  about 
the  day  of  the  crucifixion  must  have  led  to  different 
statements  with  regard  to  the  day  of  the  resurrection, 
if  the  latter  event  had  to  be  accomplished  on  the  third 
day  after  the  former.  Yet,  in  the  first  three  Gospels, 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  as  clearly  as  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  described  to  have  taken  place  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week  as  it  began  to  dawn. 

If  it  can  be  shown  that,  according  to  the  fourth  Gos- 
pel, the  day  of  the  resurrection  was  the  third  day  after  the 
slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  and  was  also  the  third 
day  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  then  it  will  be  proved  that  the 
resurrection  is  in  all  four  Gospels  implied  to  have  taken 
place  on  the  16th  Nisan,  and  in  the  very  same  hours  of 
early  morning  when  the  firstling-sheaf  or  Paschal  omer 
was  presented  in  the  Temple.  From  this  it  will  follow 
with  mathematical  certainty,  that  according  to  the  first 
three  Gospels  Jesus  rose  on  the  second  day  after  his 
death,  and  that  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel  he  rose, 
as  Paul  declared,  '  on  the  third  day  according  to  the 
Scriptures.'  Now,  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the  Sun- 
day of  the  Christians,  is  in  all  the  Gospels  mentioned  as 
the  day  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  whilst  the  cruci- 
fixion took  place  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel  one  day 
earlier  than  according  to  the  first  three.  It  follows,  that 
according  to  the  latter  Jesus  was  buried  on  the  day  pre- 
vious to  his  resurrection,  that  is  on  the  Sabbath,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  fourth  Gospel  on  the  Friday,  so  that  the 
resurrection  took  place  on  the  third  day,  thus  corre- 
sponding with  the  presentation  of  the  first  barley-meal, 
which  '  according  to  the  Scriptures '  had  to  take  place 
the  third  day  after  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb. 

Does  the  fourth  Gospel  imply  that  Jesus  died  on  the 
14th  Nisan  contemporaneously  with  the  slaying  of  the 
Paschal  lamb,  and  that  he  rose  on  the  16th  Nisan  con- 
temporaneously with  the  presentation  of  the  Paschal 
omer  ? 


202  PAUL   AXD   THE   ESSEXES. 

At  the  outset  it  may  be  observed  that  unless  the  day 
of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  was  the  16th  Nisan,  that  is 
the  third  day  after  the  slaying  of  the  lamb,  the  Old 
Testament  would  contain  no  possible  type,  and  the  New 
Testament  no  antitype,  to  justify  Paul's  declaration  that 
Jesus  rose  on  the  third  day  '  according  to  the  Scriptures.' 
If  Jesus  by  his  resurrection  fulfilled  the  type  of  the 
Paschal  omer  on  the  16th  Nisan,  he  must  have  fulfilled 
by  his  death  on  the  14th  Nisan  the  type  of  the  Paschal 
lamb.  Only  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  as  we  shall 
see,  have  these  two  Mosaic  types  been  fulfilled  by  Jesus, 
and  here  only  is  he  designated  as  the  Lamb  of  God, 
again  in  harmony  with  Paul's  preaching.  It  is  only  in 
the  Gospel  after  John  that  the  Baptist  is  recorded  to 
have  pointed  to  him  as  '  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world  ' ;  it  is  only  here  that  Jesus  is 
recorded  to  have  spoken  of  the  eating  of  his  flesh  and 
the  drinking  of  his  blood  ;  and  finally  it  is  here  only  that 
Jesus  is  not  recorded  to  have  eaten  the  Paschal  lamb 
with  his  disciples  on  the  day  before  his  crucifixion. 
Jesus  could  not  have  done  this  if  the  lamb  was  not  yet 
slain  on  that  day,  and  if  the  day  after  his  last  supper 
was  the  14th  Nisan,  when  contemporaneously  with  the 
slaying,  and  as  antitype  of  the  lamb,  he  was  to  be  cruci- 
fied. 

These  peculiarities  in  the  fourth  Gospel  would  show, 
even  if  taken  by  themselves,  that  according  to  the 
fourth  Gospel  Jesus  was  the  antitype  of  the  Paschal 
lamb,  and  in  this  sense  the  Lamb  of  God.  But  other 
statements  in  the  same  Gospel  confirm  the  assertion  that, 
according  to  the  same,  Jesus  died  on  the  14th  Nisan, 
contemporaneously  with  the  slaying  of  the  lamb.  The 
anointing  of  Jesus  before  his  death  is  here  related  to 
have  taken  place  '  six  days '  before  the  Passover,  and 
yet  it  is  implied  that  the  day  of  anointing  was  the  10th 
Nisan,  the  same  day  when  the  Paschal  lamb  had  to  be 
set  apart.    For  the  Initiated  would  understand,  that  the 


INTERVAL    BETWEEN   DEATH    AND    RESURRECTION.        203 

sixth  day  before  the  Passover,  when  Jesus  was  anointed 
with  oil  unto  the  day  of  his  burying,  pointed  to  the  day 
when  the  Paschal  lamb  was  slain,  to  the  14th  Nisan, 
when  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  as  we  shall  see, 
the  burial  of  Jesus  took  place,  of  him  who  was  pro- 
claimed as  the  Paschal  Lamb  of  the  new  confession. 

The  10th  Nisan  began  in  the  evening  of  the  9th, 
and  the  14th  lasted  until  the  morning  of  the  15th,  so 
that  although  only  four  days  were  required  between  the 
setting  apart  and  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  six 
days  could  be  reckoned  between  these  events. 

Again,  the  omission  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  in  the  fourth  Gospel  is  at  once  explained  if  in 
that  record  Jesus  was  to  be  designated  as  the  antitype 
of  the  Paschal  lamb.  It  is  not  necessary  to  assume  an 
unaccountable  '  incompleteness  in  S.  John's  narrative  ' 
with  regard  to  a  subject  on  which  we  are  led  '  to 
expect  great  fulness  of  detail,'  by  the  circumstantiality 
with  which  the  Paschal  account  in  the  fourth  Gospel 
begins.1  If  it  was  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  this 
Gospel  to  establish,  at  least  by  implication,  the  new 
symbolism  and  doctrine  about  the  Messianic  Paschal 
Lamb,  then  no  notice  could  be  taken,  in  this  Scripture, 
of  an  institution  which,  in  the  first  three  Gospels,  is 
clearly  stated  to  have  been  ordained  after  the  slaying 
and  the  eating  of  the  Paschal  lamb. 

Thus  far  we  have  advanced  the  following  arguments, 
tending  to  establish  the  fact  that  in  the  fourth  Gospel 
the  date  of  the  crucifixion  is  implied  to  have  been  the 
14th  Nisan,  not  the   15th,  as  in   the   other  Gospels.2 


1  Dr.  Edersheim,  The  Temple,  its  Ministry  and  Set-vices  at  the  time  of 
Jesus  Christ,  published  by  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  1874. 

2  Canon  Farrer  admits  the  discrepancy  between  the  first  three  Gospels 
and  the  fourth  Gospel  about  the  day  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  and  considers  the 
account  in  the  fourth  Gospel  as  the  historical  one.  Dr.  Edersheim  tries  to 
show  that  according  to  all  four  Gospels  the  crucifixion  took  place  on  the  loth 
Nisan.  He  '  tenaciously  holds  '  the  doctrine  of  '  the  plenary  inspiration '  of 
the  Bible. 


204  PAUL   AXD   THE    ESSENES 

The  Gospel  in  which  alone  Jesus  is  called  the  Lamb  of 
God  must  connect  his  death  with  the  slaying  of  the 
Paschal  lamb  on  the  14th  Nisan,  in  order  to  support 
the  new  Messianic  attribute  by  the  fulfilment  of  a  type 
from  the  Old  Testament.  Again,  in  this  Gospel  the 
day  of  anointing  can  be  explained  so  as  to  refer  to  the 
14th  Nisan  as  the  day  of  the  crucifixion.  Finally,  if 
Jesus  instituted  a  new  rite  on  the  day  before  he  suf- 
fered, that  rite  could  not  by  him  have  been  connected 
with  his  eating  of  the  Paschal  lamb  with  the  disciples, 
as  attested  by  the  first  three  Gospels,  if  on  the  following 
day  he  was  to  be  crucified,  contemporaneously  with  the 
slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  as  the  fourth  Gospel 
implies. 

To  these  three  indirect  proofs  of  the  above  assertion, 
a  direct  proof  has  to  be  added.  It  is  stated  in  the 
fourth  Gospel  that  after  the  supper,  when  Judas  had 
betrayed  Jesus,  the  Jews  '  went  not  into  the  judgment 
hall,  lest  they  should  be  defiled,  but  that  they  might 
eat  the  Passover.'  According  to  this  statement,  the 
supper  and  the  betrayal  had  taken  place  on  the  13th, 
not  on  the  14th  Nisan,  on  which  day  the  Passover,  that 
is,  the  Paschal  lamb,  was  eaten,  and  had  been  eaten 
by  Jesus  with  his  disciples,  if  the  first  three  Evangelists 
can  be  trusted.  But  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel, 
on  the  day  after  the  supper  and  betrayal  Jesus  was  to 
be  crucified  contemporaneously  with  the  slaying  of  the 
Paschal  lamb. 

Since  all  Evangelists  by  direct,  and  Paul  by  indirect 
statements,  explain  the  eating  of  the  Passover  as  the 
eating  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  no  notice  need  be  taken  of 
the  attempt  to  prove  that  exceptionally  in  this  passage 
of  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  eating  of  the  Passover  is  not 
to  be  referred  to  the  lamb,  but  to  the  eating  of  the 
chagiga  of  unleavened  bread  with  bitter  herbs.  The 
same  was  eaten  for  the  first  time  after  the  lamb  on  the 
14th  Nisan,  but  it  was  also  eaten  on  the  15th  Nisan,  on 


EATIXG   THE   PASSOVER   OR   PASCHAL   LAMB.  205 

which  day  Levitical  purity  was  likewise  required  for 
so  doing.1 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  assert,  that  only  ac- 
cording to  statements  made  by  Paul  and  in  the  fourth 
Gospel,  Jesus  rose  on  the  third  day  after  his  death 
«  according  to  the  Scriptures.'  We  repeat  the  question 
Ave  have  raised  :  Whence  can  this  tradition  have  come? 

Paul  writes  to  the  Corinthians,  to  whom  he  had 
first  communicated  this  tradition,  that  '  he  also '  had 
received  it,  therefore  as  others  had  done  before  him. 
Who  can  these  have  been  ?  Certainly  not  the  Apostles, 
of  whom  not  one  expected  anything  so  extraordinary 
after  the  burial  of  Jesus  as  a  visible  and  corporeal 
resurrection  of  the  same.  The  Apostles  had  not  con- 
nected the  expected  resuscitation  of  the  dead  on  the 
third  day,  already  mentioned  in  the  Zendavesta,  with 
the  offering  of  the  barley-meal  on  the  third  day  after 
the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  which  Moses  had 
ordered.  Again,  Jesus  had  not  been  crucified  con- 
temporaneously with  the  lamb  on  the  14th,  instead  of 
the,15th  Nisan.  Otherwise  the  idea  might  have  sug- 
gested itself  to  the  Apostles,  that  the  ceremonials 
ordered  by  the  law  for  the  14th  and  the  16th  Nisan, 
according  to  God's  eternal  purpose,  would  be  anti- 
typically  fulfilled  by  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus.  After  the  crucifixion  the  Apostles  might  have 
looked  forward  with  a  holy  expectation  to  the  16th 
Nisan,  if  this  day  had  been  the  third  instead  of  the 
second  after  his  death.  Since  we  must  regard  this 
reckoning  as  correct,  it  is  absolutely  clear  that  those 
passages  in  the  first  three  Gospels,  according  to  which 
Jesus  is  said  to  have  predicted  or  confirmed  his  resur- 
rection on  the  third  day,  are  unhistorical,  and  have 
been  inserted  for  the  purpose  of  misleading  the  readers.2 

1  Wieseler,  followed  by  Dr.  Edersheim,  I.  c. 

2  Matt.  xvi.  21  ;  xvii.  22,  23  ;  xx.  17  ;  Mark  viii.  31 ;  ix.  30,  31 ;  x.  34; 
Luke  ix.  22,  comp.  45 ;  xviii.  33 ;  xxiv.  7,  21,  44. 


206  PAUL   AND   THE   ESSEXES. 

Among  these  statements,  the  most  important  are 
contained  in  the  narrative  of  the  disciples  of  Emmaus, 
who  '  on  the  first  day  in  the  week,'  thus  on  the  16th 
Nisan,  as  we  know  from  the  fourth  Gospel,  are  said  to 
have  believed  this  was  *  the  third  day '  after  the  cruci- 
fixion. Luke  cannot  have  inserted  this  narrative,  since 
he  knew,  as  his  Gospel  testifies,  that  this  day  was  the 
second  after  the  crucifixion.  For  the  same  reason,  the 
two  disciples  on  their  return  to  Jerusalem  cannot  have 
convinced  the  assembled  eleven,  that  He  who  had  been 
crucified  on  the  day  previous  to  the  16th  Nisan  was 
risen  on  the  16th  Nisan,  as  on  the  third  day  after  his 
crucifixion.  The  testified  apparition  of  the  risen  Jesus 
in  their  midst  could  not  turn  the  second  day  into  the 
third.  Thus  even  the  possibility  falls  to  the  ground, 
that  Jesus,  on  his  appearing  to  the  eleven  and  the 
disciples  of  Emmaus,  could  have  reminded  them  of  the 
words  which  he  had  spoken  to  them  whilst  he  was  yet 
with  them,  '  that  all  things  must  be  fulfilled  which  were 
written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the 
Psalms,  concerning  him,  saying  unto  them :  Thus  it  is 
written,  and  thus  it  behoved  Christ  to  suffer  and  to  rise 
from  the  dead  the  third  day.' 

This  narrative  cannot  be  accepted  as  a  proof  that 
the  day  of  the  reported  apparition  near  Emmaus,  to 
which  Paul  does  not  refer  in  his  enumeration  of  the 
apparitions  of  Jesus  after  death,  was  '  the  third  day  '  after 
his  crucifixion.  Yet  the  account  shows  that  those  who 
inserted  it  at  the  end  of  the  Gospel  after  Luke  regarded 
it  as  an  introduction  to  the  narrative  published  or  to 
be  published  in  the  fourth  Gospel.  They  claimed  the 
sanction  of  Jesus,  expressed  before  and  after  his  cruci- 
fixion, for  the  typical  reference  of  the  slaying  of  the 
Paschal  lamb  on  the  14th,  and  of  the  offering  of  the 
omer  on  the  16th  Nisan,  respectively,  to  his  death  and 
resurrection,  as  the  Messiah  or  Christ  foretold  by  the 
Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms,     This  intentionally 


RESURRECTION   ON   THE   SECOND   DAY.  207 

invented  narrative  was  to  confirm  the  fourth  Gospel 
and  to  rectify  the  first  three  Gospels.  Accordingly,  the 
twelve  Apostles  ought  to  have  understood  the  Scriptures 
and  known  that  Jesus  must  rise  from  the  dead.  They 
ought  to  have  watched  at  the  sepulchre  '  in  the  end  of 
the  Sabbath  as  it  began  to  dawn  toward  the  first  day  of 
the  week.'  This  their  unaccountable  ignorance  is  ex- 
plained by  one  of  the  later  inserted  passages  in  Luke,  in 
which  we  are  told  that  the  disciples  '  understood  not 
this  saying,  and  it  was  hid  from  them,  that  they  per- 
ceived it  not ' ;  that  is,  the  saying  of  Jesus,  about  the 
Son  of  Man  being  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  men, 
which  is  said  to  have  been  by  Jesus  connected  with  the 
prophecy  of  his  rising  on  '  the  third  day.' 1 

It  follows  from  this,  that  neither  before  or  at  any 
time  after  the  16th  Nisan  any  one  of  the  twelve 
Apostles  can  have  believed  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
c  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures.'  For  the 
day  on  which  the  Apostles,  called  by  women  to  the 
sepulchre,  are  stated  to  have  seen  and  believed  what 
they  did  not  expect,  was  not  the  third  day  after  the 
burial,  but  the  second.  The  Twelve  may  have  believed 
in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  on  the  second  day,  as  such 
is  reported  in  the  first  three  Gospels,  but  they  can  never 
have  believed  that  this  occurred  '  according  to  the 
Scriptures,'  in  which  not  a  single  passage,  however  figu- 
ratively interpreted,  can  be  made  to  point  to  Messiah's 
resurrection  on  the  day  after  his  death.  Thus  it  is 
proved  by  evidence  drawn  from  the  Old  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament, that  the  twelve  Apostles  did  not  belong  to  those, 
of  whom  Paul  clearly  implies,  that  they  had  before 
him  received  this  tradition  about  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  on  '  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures.' 

In  order  to  answer  the  question,  who  these  can 
have  been,  who  '  also,'  like  Paul,  had  received  this  tra- 
dition, unknown  to  the  twelve  Apostles,  we  are  led  to 

1  Luke  ix.  45,  comp.  22. 


208  PAUL   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

surmise  that  they  may  have  been  Essenes,  who  alone 
among  the  Jews  recognised  a  figurative  interpretation 
of  Scripture,  such  as  is  demanded  by  the  Paulinic  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  on  '  the  third  day  according 
to  the  Scriptures.' 

We  pointed  out,  that  the  forerunner  of  the  Messiah 
expected  by  the  Essenes  would  be  Elijah  the  tishbite, 
or  stranger,  the  chariot  or  '  rechab '  of  Israel,  probably 
one  of  the  Eechabites,  with  whom  we  have  connected 
the  Essenes.1  This  Messiah,  who  was  to  come  in  the 
spirit  of  Elijah,  was  expected  to  bring  about  the  general 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  The  resurrection  of  departed 
man  was  connected  by  Oriental  tradition  with  the  third 
day  after  his  death.2  The  Essene,  who  was  well 
acquainted  with  Oriental  tradition,  might  therefore 
expect,  that  the  Messiah,  whether  an  incarnate  Angel 
or  not,  as  an  introduction  and  announcement  of  the 
general  resurrection,  would  rise  on  the  third  day  after 
his  death  as  firstling  or  '  firstfruit  of  them  that  sleep.' 
Sooner  or  later,  this  expectation  would  begin  to  take 
root  among  the  Essenes.  At  all  events,  after  that  Jesus 
had  died  at  the  time  of  the  Passover,  the  idea  must 
have  suggested  itself,  to  connect  the  three  days  between 
the  slaying  of  the  lamb  and  the  offering  of  the  flour 
from  the  first  ripened  corn,  with  the  three  days  which 
might  possibly  have  elapsed  between  the  death  and  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  The  crucifixion 
had  been  accomplished  in  such  a  hurried  manner  that  to 
many,  especially  to  the  Essenes,  who  chiefly  lived  in  the 
country,  it  may  have  been  doubtful,  whether  Jesus  had 
died  on  the  15th  or  on  the  14th  Nisam  Those  Essenes 
who  believed  in  the  latter  date  must  have  looked  to 
the  16th  Nisan  with  an  extreme  excitement,  with  a  holy 

1  Not  only  is  the  personal  appearance  of  Elijah  described  like  that  of  the 
Baptist,  but  the  chief  events  in  the  lives  of  both  took  place  in  the  same 
wilderness  of  the  Bead  Sea,  where  the  Essenes  had  their  settlements. 

a  Corap.  Spiegel,  Acad,  dcr  IViss.  VI.  §  89  ff.j  JJic  Plejaden,  71. 


THE    PASCHAL    OMER.  l>09 

expectation.  Those  who,  like  the  Baptist,  had  doubted 
whether  Jesus  was  He  that  should  come,  must  have 
expected  to  see  their  doubts  set  aside  or  confirmed  at 
morning-dawn  on  this  day.  If  Jesus  should  then  rise 
visibly,  and  on  the  supposition  that  he  had  died  on  the 
14th  Nisan,  he  was  powerfully  manifested,  not  only  as 
the  firstling  of  the  general  resurrection,  and  as  Son  of 
God,  as  the  Essenes  expected  of  the  Messiah,  but  his 
death  and  resurrection  had  been  typified  by  two  Mosaic 
institutions,  by  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb  and  the 
offering  of  the  Paschal  omer. 

Delegates  from  the  Sanhedrim  had,  already  on  the 
14th  Nisan,  chosen  a  spot  in  a  field  near  Jerusalem, 
where  a  few  bundles  of  the  first  ripened  barley  were 
reaped  at  sunset  on  the  15th  Nisan,  and  brought  into 
the  court  of  the  Temple.  The  corn  having  been  duly 
prepared,  an  omer  of  barley-flour,  the  tenth  part  of  an 
ephah,  was,  in  the  earliest  morning-hour  of  the  16th 
Nisan,  offered  in  the  Temple.  Since  the  previous  day, 
the  loth  Nisan,  the  first  day  of  the  Paschal  Feast 
was  kept  holy  as  a  Sabbath,  on  whatever  day  of  the 
week  it  might  fall,  the  time  of  the  presentation  of  the 
Paschal  omer  could  not  be  more  accurately  referred  to 
than  in  the  words  in  which,  in  the  Gospel  after  Matthew, 
the  time  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  on  that  same  day 
is  determined  :  4  In  the  end  of  the  Sabbath,  as  it  began 
to  dawn  towards  the  first  day  of  the  week.'  On  *  the 
morrow  after  the  (Paschal)  Sabbath,'  and  the  third  day 
after  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  when  the  barley- 
sheaf,  or  rather  the  omer  of  barley-flour,  was  waved  by 
the  priests  before  the  Lord,  and  when  the  Israelites 
offered  '  an  he-lamb  without  blemish  '  for  a  burnt-offer- 
ing, it  was  on  that  day  that  Jesus  was  believed  to  have 
been  visibly  raised  from  the  dead,  and  on  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  as  the  son  of  man  of  the  Danielic  vision,  to 
have  been  brought  before  God. 

The  following  parallel  between  the  offering  of  the 

P 


210  PAUL   AND    THE    ESSEXES. 

firstling-Sheaf  and  the  reported  resurrection  of  Jesus 
could  not  but  strike  the  Essene,  who,  on  the  strength  of 
his  figurative  interpretation  of  Scripture,  expected  an 
Angel-Messiah.  After  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb 
on  the  14th  Nisan,  on  the  third  day  following,  in  the 
early  morning  hours  of  the  16th  Nisan,  a  measure  of 
flour  obtained  from  the  first  ripened  corn,  from  the 
firstling-sheaf,  was  offered  before  God,  which  sheaf  of 
the  first  ripened  barley  had  been  on  the  15th  Nisan  cut 
off  from  the  land  which  bore  it,  from  a  field  outside 
Jerusalem.  Thus  the  early  ripened  or  early  perfected 
servant  of  God  '  was  cut  off  from  the  land  of  the  living,' 
and  for  the  transgression  of  God's  people '  was  he  stricken.' 
Jesus  was  '  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,'  as  anti- 
type of  the  Paschal  lamb ;  his  life  was  made  '  an  offering 
for  sin '  on  a  hill  outside  Jerusalem  ;  they  gave  him  '  his 
grave  with  the  wicked,'  and  heaped  stones  upon  it,  as 
on  graves  of  malefactors,1  '  though  he  had  done  wrong 
to  no  man,  neither  was  deceit  in  his  mouth.'  But  '  by 
his  wisdom,'  he,  Jesus,  the  servant  of  God,  has  'justified 
many,'  he  has  borne  '  their  iniquities,'  he  has  borne  '  the 
sins  of  many,'  and  '  made  intercession  for  the  trans- 
gressors.' '  Free  from  the  travail  of  his  soul,'  he  has 
6  satisfied  his  eyes  ; '  for  '  the  third  day  according  to 
the  Scriptures,'  God  raised  him  from  the  dead,  as  '  the 
firstfruits  of  them  that  sleep ' ;  the  '  One  like  a  son  of 
man,'  was  on  the  clouds  of  heaven  brought  before  God. 
This  parallel  presupposes  thel4th  Nisan  for  Christ's  death. 
A  very  different  parallel  would  suggest  itself  to  those 
who  believed  that  Jesus  had  died,  not  on  the  14th,  but 
on  the  15th  Nisan,  and  who  did  not  expect  the  Messiah 
promised  by  Moses  to  be  an  incarnate  Angel,  or  the 
antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  the  Lamb  of  God,  nor 
that  he  would  rise  from  the  dead  '  the  third  day 
according  to  the  Scriptures.' 

1  Possible  reference  to  Jeremiah,  who  was  stoned  to  death  in  Egypt,  ac- 
cording to  Epiphanius.  The  Hebrew  word  '  Hamah,'  hill  or  height,  often 
refers  to  idolatrous  heights.     Bansen's  Bibrfwcrlc  to  Is.  liii. 


THE    LAMB    OF    GOD.  211 

On  the  loth  Nisan,  according  to  generally  received 
tradition,  the  Sinai  tic  law  had  been  given ;  and  this  was 
the  day  on  which  Israel,  the  firstborn  of  nations,  was 
liberated  from  the  Egyptian  house  of  bondage,  after 
that  on  the  previous  day  the  Passover  had  been  slain. 
According  to  this  typical  parallel  the  spiritual  liberation 
which  Jesus  had  brought  had  been  accomplished  on 
the  loth,  not  on  the  14th  Nisan,  and  it  stood  in  no  con- 
nection with  the  Mosaic  institutions  of  the  14th  and  of 
the  16th  Nisan. 

Only  through  the  mediation  of  Essenes  can  Paul 
'also,'  as  Essenes  before  him,  have  received  the  tradi- 
tion, that  Christ  rose  'the  third  day  according  to  the 
Scriptures.'  Other  circumstances  likewise  point  to  the 
Essenic  origin  of  this  doctrine,  which  the  Apostles  at 
Jerusalem  can  be  proved  not  to  have  recognised.  The 
new  doctrine  of  Christ  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  is, 
as  antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  and  which  cannot  be 
separated  from  the  new  doctrine  about  Messiah's  resur- 
rection '  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  has  been  recorded, 
as  by  Paul  and  the  fourth  Gospel,  so  in  the  essentially 
Essenic  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  which  we  shall  later  consider. 

The  disciples  of  John  in  the  second  century,  the 
Essenic  Jews,  like  the  Jewish  Christians,  kept  the  legal 
Passover  on  the  14th  Nisan,  when  Jesus  had  eaten  the 
Paschal  lamb  with  his  disciples  according  to  the  first 
three  Gospels.  JeAvs  and  Jewish  Christians  formed  the 
anti-Paulinic  party  of  the  Quartodecimans,  and  denied 
that  Jesus  died  on  the  14th  Nisan,  or  that  on  that  day 
a  redeeming  sacrifice  by  Christ  could  have  taken  place. 
But,  in  harmony  with  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  elders  of 
the  Church  at  Home  maintained  in  the  Paschal  dispute 
the  anti-Quartodeciman  tradition,  which  was  that  of 
Paul  and  also,  as  we  may  now  assume,  of  the  Essenic 
Christians.  The  statements  in  the  fourth  Gospel  are  at 
the  end  of  it  attested  as  true  by  certain  persons,  whom 
we  may  regard  as  elders  of  the  Eoman  Church. 

p  2 


212  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSEXE8. 

The  Eoman  and  Paulinian  party,  which  took  its  stand 
on  the  Gospel  after  John,  was  opposed  during  this  dis- 
pute by  the  Asiatic  Church,  represented  by  Polycarp,  as 
direct  disciple  of  John,  and  bishop  of  Smyrna,  who 
visited  Borne  in  155.  He  failed  to  persuade  the  bishop 
(Pope)  Anicetus  that,  in  accordance  with  the  Apostle 
John's  practice,  the  14th  Nisan  ought  to  be  kept  by 
fasting,  and  that  the  contrary  tradition  of  Roman  elders 
ought  not  to  be  opposed  to  Apostolic  tradition.1  The 
Paschal  dispute  confirms  the  continued  existence  of  two 
parties  in  the  Christian  Church,  and  their  connection 
respectively  with  original  Apostolic  and  with  Paulinic 
tradition,  as  the  latter  is  recorded  in  the  fourth  Gospel, 
in  contradiction  to  the  tradition,  contained  in  the 
first  three  Gospels.1  We  may  also  infer,  that  the 
Gentile  Christians,  who  kept  aloof  from  the  Jewish 
Christians,  and  still  assembled  in  separate  churches  in 
Rome  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  accord- 
ing to  the  testimony  of  Justin  Martyr,  had  then  risen 
in  this  city  to  higher  influence.  It  is  the  time  when 
the  leading  Gnostics  (Essenes?)  nocked  to  Rome,  when 
they  addressed  the  question  to  the  elders  of  this 
Church,  whether  it  be  expedient  to  pour  new  wine, 
possibly  the  Essenic-Paulinian  doctrine,  into  old  skins? 
It  was  by  the  chiefs  of  the  Jews,  probably  by  the 
elders  of  the  essentially  Jewish-Christian  Church  in 
Rome,  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Peter,  whom  Paul 
called  a  Jew  at  Antioch,  that  Paul  Avas  regarded  as  the 
member  of  a  sect  'everywhere  spoken  against.' 

In  the  fourth  Gospel,  where  alone  the  narratives 
about  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  correspond  with 
the  two  Mosaic  types,  as  with  Paulinian  and  probably 
Essenic  tradition,  the  statement  is  contained,  of  which 
there  is   no   trace  anywhere  else,  that  several  of  the 

1  Eus.  H.E.  V.  24 ;  comp.  IV.  14 ;  III.  3G.  Hier.  Be  Fir.  ill.  17  ;  Chron. 
Pasch.,  257.  Comp.  Hilgenfeld,  Einleitimg  in  das  N.T.,  Erste  Ausy.  403  f., 
CDrf,  730,  736, 


'  I    OK    THEY.'  213 


disciples  whom  Jesus  had  chosen,  were  disciples  of 
John  or  Essenes,  and  that  many  of  the  Baptist's  disciples 
believed  in  Jesus  before  he  made  his  entry  into  Jeru- 
salem. Again,  Paul  designates  Jesus  as  the  firstfnrits 
or  firstling  of  them  that  sleep — as  if  he  had  in  view 
the  type  of  the  firstling-sheaf.  Finally,  as  only  in  the 
fourth  Gospel  the  parable  of  the  corn  of  wheat  is  con- 
tained, which  brings  not  forth  fruit  unless  it  die,  so 
Paul  writes  :  '  What  thou  sowest,'  that  is,  a  mere  corn 
or  grain,  '  is  not  quickened  unless  it  die.'  The  writers 
of  both  passages  may  have  had  in  view  the  first  ripened 
corn  offered  in  the  morning  of  the  resurrection-day. 

The  Essenic  origin  of  the  tradition  about  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  on  <  the  third  day  according  to  the 
Scriptures,'  will  increase  in  probability  in  the  same 
degree  as  it  may  become  possible  to  connect  the  fourth 
Gospel  with  Essenian,  Paulinic,  and  Roman  tradition. 
Already  now  we  are  enabled  to  assert,  that  the  narra- 
tives about  the  resurrection,  contained  in  the  first  three 
Gospels,  have  been  added  to  the  revised  text  of  the 
most  ancient  Gospels,  probably  not  before  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Fourth  Gospel  in  the  second  century.  For 
we  have  proved  by  comparison  of  the  Scriptures,  that 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  testified  by  Paul  and  the 
fourth  Gospel  as  having  taken  place  'the  third  day 
according  to  the  Scriptures,'  was  neither  expected  by 
the  twelve  Apostles,  nor  can  at  any  time  have  been 
believed  by  them. 

The  Apparitions  of  Jesus  after  Death. 

Paul  asserts  that  the  twelve  Apostles,  convinced  by 
apparitions,  had  proclaimed  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
to  believing  audiences.  But  he  does  not  say  that  any 
of  these  apparitions  of  Jesus  took  place  at  the  empty 
grave,  or  that  an  empty  grave  had  been  attested,  nor 
that  these  apparitions  convinced  the  Twelve  that  Jesus 


214  PAUL    AND    THE    ESSEXES. 

had  risen  '  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures.' 
Paul  assures  us  that  all  the  Apostles  preached  Christ 
risen  from  the  dead  :  '  Whether  it  be  I  or  they,  so  we 
preach  and  so  ye  believed.'  The  Apostle  does  not  say 
that  all  the  Apostles  preached  like  him,  '  that  Christ 
died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  that  is, 
as  antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  '  and  that  he  was 
buried  and  that  he  rose  again  the  third  day  according 
to  the  Scriptures,'  that  is,  as  antitype  of  the  Paschal 
omer.  The  twelve  Apostles  could  not  believe  in  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  on  the  third  day,  and  therefore, 
also  not  that  he  was  the  antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb, 
and  in  this  sense  the  Lamb  of  God.  Nor  can  it  be 
asserted  that  either  they  or  Paul  believed  that  the 
body  of  Jesus  in  the  grave  had  been  saved  from 
corruption.  It  is  all  the  more  important  that  the 
narratives  about  apparitions  of  Jesus  after  death  rest 
on  better  evidence.  We  have  sufficient  ground  for  our 
conviction,  that  by  his  appearing  after  death,  wherever 
and  whenever  it  may  have  been,  Jesus  has  confirmed 
the  ancient  belief  in  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  and  he 
has  raised  that  traditional  belief  to  an  incontrovertible 
fact.  As  such,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  has  been 
asserted  by  the  first  teachers  of  Christianity,  although 
they  could  not  and  did  not  all  agree  as  to  the  supposed 
typical  and  supernatural  import  of  this  event.1 

When  seventeen  years  after  the  conversion  of  Paul 
to  the  faith  of  Stephen  in  the  risen  Jesus  as  the  Angel- 
Messiah  of  the  Essenes,  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  gave 
him  the  hand  of  fellowship,  they  did  so  because  they 
could  not  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact,  that  '  he  that 
wrought    for   Peter  unto  the  Apostleship    among    the 

1  There  is  nothing  which  could  jiLstify  the  disconnection  of  the  evidence 
of  the  apparitions  of  Jesus  after  death  from  the  numerous  stories  that  are 
extant  of  apparitions  of  dead  men,  and  which  are  some  of  the  undeniable 
proofs  of  superhuman,  though  not  of  supernatural,  agency.  Similar  appari- 
tions after  death  have  been  attested  not  less  forcibly  in  recent  times  with  re- 
gard to  Thomas  a  Becket  and  Savonarola. 


JESUS    CRUCIFIED    AND    RISEN.  215 

circumcision,'  the  same  wrought  also  for  Paul  'unto 
the  Gentiles.'  He  who  had  chosen  the  twelve  Apostles, 
was  by  them  believed  to  be  the  man  whom  God 
anointed  or  made  Christ,  <  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
with  power,'  and  who  as  anointed  man  was  '  the  Son  of 
the  living  God.'  The  same  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  re- 
garded by  Stephen,  by  Paul  and  others,  as  the  anointed 
Angel  of  God  who  had  appeared  to  Moses,  and  to  the 
Fathers  in  the  wilderness,  and  had  risen  the  third  day 
after  his  death,  '  according  to  the  Scriptures.'  On  this 
latter  point  the  twelve  Apostles  could  agree  to  differ 
with  Paul,  whilst  all  disciples  of  Jesus  believed  and 
preached  that  Jesus  lives,  that  he  died  and  rose  again, 
whether  he  was  an  anointed  man  or  an  anointed  angel. 
Such  a  conviction,  caused  and  confirmed  by  apparitions 
of  Jesus  after  death,  even  if  we  assume  that  they  had 
not  in  fact  originated  from  a  non-human  source,  would 
suffice  to  enable  the  Apostles  to  cast  off  all  fear  and 
despondency,  and  to  merge  their  differences,  preaching, 
at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  Jesus  crucified  and  risen. 

With  regard  to  the  recorded  apparitions  of  Jesus 
after  death,  two  more  or  less  probable  suppositions 
have  to  be  considered.  Either  they  originated  in  man, 
all  or  some  of  them,  or  they  were  determined  by  a 
non-human  will.  Possibly  for  more  than  a  century 
before  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  those 
who  were  initiated  in  the  mysteries  of  Essenic  tradition 
seem  to  have  cherished  the  hope,  that  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  whom  they  expected  would  rise  on  the  third 
day  after  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb  as  antitype 
of  the  same  and  of  the  Paschal  omer.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  these  expectations,  even  if  we  assume  them 
to  have  been  caused  by  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  about 
the  time  of  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  might 
mislead  men  into  regarding  what  may  have  been  mere 
phantoms,  called  forth  by  the  intensity  of  their  feeling, 
as  real  apparitions  caused  from  without,  such  as  they 


216  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSEXES. 

believed — we   think   rightly — to  have  been  the  excep- 
tional privilege  of  individuals  in  all  ages. 

On  the  other  side,  it  can  be  argued  that  the  devout 
and  mystically  trained  mind  of  the  Essenes  might  have 
prepared  them  in  an  exceptional  manner  for  seeing  and 
rightly  interpreting  real,  that  is,  objectively  determined, 
apparitions.  It  may  be  surmised,  that  thus  trained, 
the  spiritual  nature  of  the  Essenes  might  have  received 
a  higher  development;  that  the  Essenes  might  thus 
have  been  enabled  to  discern  the  typical  import  of  the 
Paschal  lamb  and  of  the  Paschal  omer ;  and  that  the 
Essenes  might  have  been  led  rightly  to  expect  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  on  '  the  third  day  according  to 
the  Scriptures.'  Assuming  this,  it  could  be  held  that. 
Jesus,  the  Angel-Messiah,  was  before  Abraham,  that 
he  participated  in  the  glory  of  God  before  the  creation 
of  the  world,  that  the  One  like  a  son  of  man  was 
brought  before  God  on  the  clouds  of  heaven. 

On  either  supposition,  whether  Jesus  did  or  whether 
he  did  not  really  appear  to  some  after  his  death,  the 
fact  would  remain,  that  what  some  men  in  bygone 
times  had  vainly  desired  to  see  and  to  hear,  was  seen  and 
heard  by  contemporaries  of  Jesus,  that  is,  they  saw 
and  heard  the  life  and  preaching,  and  apparitions  after 
death  of  a  man,  according  to  others  of  an  incarnate  Angel. 
Those  who  believed  that  Jesus  really  appeared  to  them 
after  his  death,  may  have  had,  and  they  believed  they 
had,  exceptional  and  direct  spiritual  communion  with 
a  departed  spirit,  with  a  human  soul  raised  in  power. 
Nor  need  we  think  that  this  was  the  exclusive  privilege 
of  a  few  in  the  Apostolic  age. 

The  Day  of  Pentecost. 

According  to  the  doctrines  promulgated  by  Paul,  a 
visible,  local,  or  limited  communication  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  was  not  to  be  expected,  even  after  the  resurrection 


FORTY    DAYS    AND    FIFTY    PAYS.  217 

of  Christ.  Although  the  Apostle  refers  to  the  annual 
day  of  Pentecost,  he  does  not  refer  to  the  Pentecostal 
miracle.  It  is  even  more  surprising  that  his  unsparing 
opponents  in  the  Galatian  and  other  Churches  do  not 
appear  to  have  raised  the  objection  to  Paul's  Apostle- 
ship,  that  he  had  not  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  received 
the  Holy  Ghost  together  with  the  twelve  Apostles. 
Against  such  a  charge  of  inferiority  Paul  must  have 
defended  himself  in  his  Epistles,  if  it  had  ever  been 
made.  Far  from  admitting  such  a  manifestation  of  the 
Spirit  as  man  could  have  heard  and  seen,  and  as  if 
during  his  lifetime  no  tradition  about  the  Pentecostal 
miracle  existed,  Paul  compares  the  manifestation  of 
God's  Spirit  with  what  neither  eye  has  seen  nor  ear 
heard  or  man's  mind  could  conceive.  Yet  the  account 
of  the  Pentecostal  miracle  as  transmitted  by  the  Acts  is 
essentially  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  Paul's  clearly 
implied  doctrine  about  the  withdrawal  of  God's  Spirit 
from  mankind  after  the  fall,  and  on  the  restoration  of  this 
power  of  God  after  the  death  of  Christ,  when  he  was 
made  '  a  curse  for  us  '  so  '  that  we  might  receive  the 
promised  Spirit  through  faith.' 

The  Acts  commence  Avitli  the  command  given  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives  to  the  Apostles  by  the  risen  Jesus, 
'  through  the  Holy  Ghost '  and  at  the  end  of  forty  days, 
that  they  should  wait  at  Jerusalem  '  for  the  promise  of 
the  Father,'  which  they  had  heard  from  him,  that  is, 
for  the  sending  of  the  Spirit  of  truth,  about  which, 
according  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  Jesus  had  spoken  to  his 
disciples.  '  Not  many  days  hence,'  or,  rather,  '  not  long 
after  these  days,'  after  these  forty  days  of  which  neither 
Paul  nor  the  Gospels  give  any  account,  the  Apostles 
would  be  '  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost.'  This  dis- 
tinction of  the  future  spiritual  baptism  through  the 
Messiah  from  the  baptism  with  water  had  been  made 
by  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene,  again  according  to  the 
fourth  Gospel,  when  he  pointed  to  that  which  Jesus, 


218  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSENES. 

the  Lamb  of  God,  would  do.  The  spiritual  baptism  of 
the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  thus 
announced,  is  directly  connected  with  a  recorded  pro- 
phecy of  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene  about  the  future 
coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  the  existence  of  which 
certain  disciples  of  John  declared  to  Paul  they  had 
heard  nothing.  '  When  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully 
come,'  or  '  as  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  approaching  its 
fulfilment,'  that  is,  when  the  time  had  come  for  the 
fulfilment  of  what  the  Jewish  feast  of  Pentecost  was 
held  to  have  prefigured,  probably  only  by  the  allego- 
rising Essenes,  a  beginning  of  the  re-established  rule  of 
God's  Spirit  took  place,  in  harmony  with  the  prophecy 
of  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene  as  confirmed  by  the 
risen  Jesus. 

Not  long  after  the  forty  days,  during  which  Jesus 
'  showed  himself  alive  after  his  passion  by  many  infallible 
proofs '  or  demonstrations,  when  he  had  been  seen  of 
the  Apostles,  and  had  spoken  to  them  about  the  kingdom 
of  God,  that  is,  on  the  fiftieth  day  after  his  resurrection, 
was  a  great  day  in  the  Jewish  calendar.  Fifty  days  after 
the  solemnity  of  the  beginning  of  the  harvest,  early  on 
the  16th  Nisan,  seven  weeks  after  the  offering  of  the 
firstling-sheaf  or  Paschal  omer,  after  the  time  when 
the  last  wheat  had  ripened,  the  end  of  the  harvest  was 
solemnised.  Of  the  last  ripened  wheat  two  loaves  were 
made  and  offered  to  the  Lord  in  the  name  of  Israel. 
Also  two  lambs  were  offered  as  thank-offering,  followed 
by  fire-  and  sin-offerings  and  by  festive  meals.  Jesus 
had  died  on  the  14th  Nisan,  as  antitype  of  the  Paschal 
lamb,  and  had  been  raised  again  on  the  16th  Nisan, 
as  antitype  of  the  firstling-sheaf.  So  Paul  and  the 
fourth  Gospel  testify,  and  so  the  allegorising  Essenes 
seem  to  have  believed.  This  Messianic  symbolism  neces- 
sarily suggested,  that  fifty  days  after  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  thus  contemporaneously  with  the  Jewish  Pen- 
tecost, the  disciples  who  followed  him  in  the  spiritual 


THE    BAPTISM    WITH    THE    HOLY    GHOST.  219 

regeneration,  and  who  might  be  compared  with  the  later 
ripened  wheat,  that  these  brethren  would  be  added,  as 
it  were,  to  the  Lord's  offertory.  Also  of  the  Jewish  day 
of  Pentecost  it  had  to  be  expected  that  it  would  have  a 
typical  and  Messianic  importance.  If  the  risen  Christ  had 
promised  that  in  a  few  days  the  Apostles  would  be 
baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  John  had  predicted, 
then  an  extraordinary  operation  of  God's  Spirit  must 
have  been  expected  on  that  fiftieth  day. 

The  Acts  presume  that  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem 
did  not  doubt  that  Jesus  had  died  on  the  14th  Nisan, 
had  risen  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,  on 
the  16th  Nisan,  and  that  on  the  fiftieth  day  after  the 
latter  date  the  fulfilment  of  the  promised  spiritual 
baptism  would  take  place.  It  is  implied  that  in  this 
expectation  '  they  were  all  with  one  accord  in  one 
place,'  when  on  the  tenth  day  after  the  ascension  of 
Jesus,  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  approaching  its  fulfil- 
ment. The  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  symbolised  by 
fire,  was  attested  by  visible  '  cloven  tongues,  like  as  of 
fire,'  one  of  which  '  sat  upon  each  of  them,'  whereupon 
they  all  were  '  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,' and  thus  were 
caused  to  speak  'with  other  tongues,'  to  the  astonishment 
of  a  large  concourse  of  people  of  many  nations. 

According  to  the  preceding  disquisitions  we  assume 
as  proved  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  Apostles  at 
Jerusalem  to  believe  in  this  certainly  Paulinic,  and 
probably  Essenic,  symbolism,  which  is  presupposed  by 
the  transmitted  Pentecostal  miracle.  For  this  symbolic 
scheme  presumes  that  the  day  of  the  crucifixion  was 
the  14th  Nisan,  whilst  the  Apostles  knew  that  the 
death  and  burial  of  Jesus  had  taken  place  on  the  loth 
Nisan,  whereby  this  scheme  was  deprived  of  every 
possible  typical  basis.  The  Apostles  also  knew,  that 
although  the  Baptist  had  described  as  future  the 
coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and,  therefore,  of  the  spiritual 
kingdom  of  God,  yet  that  Jesus  had  attributed  to  the 


220  PAUL    AND   THE   ESSEXES. 

operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  the  miraculous  works 
which  he  and  others  performed,  thus  designating  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  already  come,  the  Spirit  of  God  as 
present  in  mankind  before  his  crucifixion.  The  follow- 
ing recorded  four  facts  form  the  groundwork  for  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  contained  in  the 
Acts.  The  just  mentioned  conception  of  the  Baptist 
or  Essene  about  the  Messianic  baptism  with  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  the  doctrine  of  Paul,  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
with  it  faith,  had  not  come  till  after  the  resurrection  of 
Christ ;  and,  finally,  the  statements  in  the  fourth  Gospel, 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  had  not  yet  come  at  the  time  of 
the  crucifixion  ;  and  that  Jesus  before  his  death  promised 
to  send  the  Spirit  of  truth. 

Like  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  '  the 
third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  which  the  dates 
in  the  first  three  Gospels  exclude,  the  narrative  in  the 
Acts  about  the  Pentecostal  miracle  cannot  have  been 
composed  till  about  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the 
fourth  Gospel,  as  introduction  and  confirmation  of  the 
same. 

The  Atonement. 

The  figurative  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  re- 
vealed to  the  Essenes  their  real  intended  meaning,  as 
transmitted  by  the  key  of  knowledge.  Before  others 
they  have  given  a  typical  meaning  to  the  Paschal 
lamb  slain  on  the  14th  Nisan,  the  blood  of  which  had 
caused  the  avenging  Angel  of  God  to  pass  by  the  houses 
of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt.  Even  according  to  the  literal 
meaning  the  blood  of  the  lamb  was  regarded  as  a  sign 
and  necessary  condition  of  atonement  or  reconciliation. 
If  it  has  been  shown  that  the  Essenes  expected  as 
Messiah  that  same  Angel  who  had  also  appeared  to  Moses 
in  the  burning  bush,  and  gone  before  and  followed 
Israel  in  the  wilderness,  then  it  will  follow  that  the 
Essenes  were  led  to  regard  this  Angel-Messiah  as  the 


THE    LAMB    SLAIN    BY    ABRAHAM    AXD    MOSES.  221 

antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  and  to  expect  that 
lie  must  necessarily  by  his  blood  make  an  atonement 
for  the  souls  of  men,  as  Aaron  had  done  typically. 
Whether  or  not  this  can  be  proved  to  have  been  Essenic 
doctrine,  it  was  certainly  Paulinic  doctrine.  Paul 
is  the  only  one  among  the  authors  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment Scriptures,  who  has  introduced  the  word  '  atone- 
ment,' and  connected  it  with  the  atonement  made  by 
the  blood  of  Christ,  as  typified  by  the  blood  of  the 
Paschal  lamb,  which  blood  had  been  yearly  shed  since 
the  exodus  from  Egypt.1 

In  order  to  strengthen  the  preceding  arguments, 
which  connect  Stephen  and  Paul  with  the  Essenes, 
we  shall  now  try  to  show  that  the  leading  doctrines 
and  rites  of  the  Essenes  can  best  be  explained  by  their 
presumable  typical  explanation  of  the  legal  sacrifices. 
Sooner  or  later  after  the  crucifixion  the  Essenic 
disciples  of  Jesus  must  have  believed  that  by  the  bloody 
sacrifice  of  his  death,  as  the  incarnate  Angel  of  God,  as 
the  Angel-Messiah  and  antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  Jesus 
had  brought  about  the  fulfilment  or  end  of  the  law. 

Under  directly  Divine  guidance  Moses  had  ordered 
the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb  as  a  sign  of  the  de- 
liverance from  Egypt,  that  is,  from  the  house  of  bon- 
dage. From  these  premises  the  Christian  Essenes  seem 
to  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  that  the  deliverance 
of  the  soul  from  its  earthly  house  of  bondage,  from 
the  bondage  of  sin  and  death,  that  the  redemption 
wrought  by  the  Angel-Messiah,  by  the  crucified  Jesus 
Christ,  must  have  been  typified  by  the  slaying  of  the 
Paschal  lamb.  Those  who  believed  Jesus  to  be  the 
An^el-Mcssiali  could  not  regard  it  as  a  mere  chance 
coincidence  that  Jesus  had  been  crucified,  as  Paul, 
and  probably  many  Essenes  affirmed,  contemporaneously 
with  the  slaying  of  the  annual  Paschal  lamb.  Thus  the 
14th  Xisan  was  regarded  as  hallowed  by  the  law,  which 

1  Hum.  v.  8-11  ;   1  Cor.  v.  7. 


222  PAUL   AXD    THE    E3SEXES. 

they  believed  was  '  ordained  by  angels  in  the  hands  of  a 
mediator.' 

The  Essenic  Christians  seem  to  have  also  believed  that 
the  crucified  Messiah  had  been  likewise  typified  by  the 
fiery  serpent,  since  fire  was  the  symbol  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  brought  by  the  Angel-Messiah,  and  since  the  abo- 
riginal symbol  of  the  serpent  connected  the  same  with 
the  serpent-formed  lightning.  The  essentially  Essenic 
Epistle  of  the  Apostle  Barnabas  proves  that  the  Chris- 
tian Essenes  of  the  first  century  regarded  the  brazen 
serpent,  the  cross,  and  the  Paschal  lamb  as  types  of  the 
Messiah.  The  connection  between  Barnabas  and  Paul 
would  lead  us  to  expect  that  Paul  followed  Essenic  tra- 
dition when  he  applied  to  Jesus  Christ  the  symbol  of 
the  Paschal  lamb,  and  consequently  gave  to  the  cross  a 
new  symbolical  and  sacrificial  interpretation,  of  which 
there  is  not  a  trace  in  the  Old  Testament,  or  in  the  first 
three  Gospels,  which  also  do  not  refer  to  the  brazen 
serpent. 

In  this  Essenic  sense  Paul  could  emphatically  say, 
that  he  was  '  determined  not  to  know  anything '  among 
the  Corinthians  '  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified.' 
For  he  regarded  Christ  as  '  the  end  of  the  law,'  who  had 
become  '  a  curse  for  us  '  by  having  been  crucified,  which 
is  a  curse  according  to  the  law.  The  typical  sacrifices 
of  the  law  were  now  brought  to  an  end.  This  the 
Essenes  believed  to  have  rightly  foreseen  during  at  least 
a  century  and  a  half  before  the  coming  of  Christ.  For 
this  reason  they  had  abstained  from  all  bloody  sacri- 
fices, as  the  Eechabites  had  probably  done  before  them. 

Philo,  whose  doctrinal  principles  are  chiefly  Essenic, 
and  who  was  probably  a  Therapeut,  explains  that  the 
offerings  of  frankincense  on  the  golden  altar  within  the 
inner  Temple  were  more  holy  than  the  bloody  sacrifices 
on  the  stone  altar  outside  of  it.  The  former  figuratively 
showed  our  thankfulness  'for  our  rational  spirit  which 
was  fashioned  after  the  archtypal  model  of  the  Divine 


THE    SACRIFICE    OF    SELF.  223 

image  ;  '  both  were  '  symbols  of  things  appreciable  by 
the  intellect,'  and  '  the  mystical  meaning  which  is  con- 
cealed beneath  them  must  be  investigated  by  those  who 
are  eager  for  truth  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  alle- 
gory.' He  states,  that  '  the  altar  of  God  is  the  grateful 
soul  of  the  wise  man,'  and  that  *  God  looks  not  upon 
the  victims  as  forming  the  real  sacrifice,  but  on  the 
mind  and  willingness  of  him  who  offers  them.'  'Blood 
is  a  libation  of  life,'  so  that  bloody  sacrifices  typified  the 
offering  of  self.  Under  the  archtypal  model  of  the 
Divine  image  Philo  understands  the  Essenic  Angel- 
Messiah,  whom  he  designates  as  '  the  true  Highpriest ' 
who  '  has  no  participation  in  sin.'  When  men  '  bring 
themselves  '  as  an  offering  to  God, '  they  are  offering  the 
most  perfect  of  all  sacrifices.' l  Discerning  the  deeper 
and  true  sense  of  the  letter,  the  Essenes  had  regarded 
it  as  their  chief  mission  to  prepare  mankind  for  the 
coining  of  the  atoning  Angel-Messiah,  for  the  Angel  of 
God,  who  can  '  pardon '  transgressions,  because  God's 
6  Name  is  in  him,'  for  the  incarnate  Angel's  vicarious 
and  atoning  death,  and  thus  for  the  fulfilment  of  all, 
which  was  figurative,  typical,  and  prophetic  in  the 
bloody  sacrifices  of  the  law.  According  to  the  figura- 
tive interpretation  of  the  law  by  the  Essenes,  it  is  implied 
that  the  law  pointed  to  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  Messianic 
Highpriest  without  sin.  This  symbolism  Paul  applies 
to  Jesus  as  the  Angel  of  God,  and  antitype  of  the  Paschal 
lamb,  as  '  our  Passover.' 

Christ  redeemed  us,  or  bought  us  off  from  the  curse 
of  the  law,  by  resolving  to  suffer  the  death  on  the  cross, 
to  become  '  a  curse  for  us,'  so  '  that  we  might  receive 
the  promised  Spirit  through  faith.'  This  faith  came 
with  Christ,  and  '  has  nothing  to  do  '  with  the  law. 
The  promises  to  Abraham  cannot  be  cancelled  by 
the  law  given  to  Moses  on  Sinai.  As  to  Moses  so  to 
Abraham,  the  Angel  of    the  Lord,  Christ,  the  Ange] 

1  '  Oil  those  who  offer  sacrifice,'  3-5. 


2>2±  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSEXES. 

Messiah,  had  appeared.  That  Angel  had  redeemed 
Abraham  '  from  all  evil,'  had  prevented  the  sacrifice  of 
Isaac,  and  had,  in  the  Name  of  the  Lord,  blessed  '  faith- 
ful Abraham,'  and  all  nations  in  his  seed.  In  consequence 
of  this  Angel's  voice  from  heaven,  Abraham  sacrificed 
a  lamb.  To  the  allegorising  Essene  the  Paschal  lamb 
of  Moses  would  seem  to  have  pointed  back  to  the  lamb 
sacrificed,  instead  of  Isaac,  at  the  Angel's  command, 
and  to  have  at  the  same  time  pointed  forward  to  a 
future  bloody  sacrifice,  not  of  an  animal,  but  of  an 
incarnate  Angel,  of  the  same  Angel  of  God  who  can 
'  pardon  '  transgressions,  or  make  an  atonement,  and 
who  forbad  the  human  sacrifice  in  the  case  of  Isaac.  This 
symbolism  necessarily  implied  that  the  Angel-Messiah, 
as  antitype  of  the  lamb  slain  by  Abraham  and  by  Moses 
as  the  true  Paschal  lamb,  would  offer  himself  to  God. 

Paul's  doctrine  of  the  atoning  sacrificial  death  of 
the  Messiah  is  a  simple  development  of  the  typically 
interpreted  narrative  about  the  lamb  slain  by  Abraham 
and  by  Moses,  and  its  connection  with  the  Angel  of 
God,  who  appeared  in  Jesus  as  Angel-Messiah,  in  order 
to  be  crucified  as  antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb. 

Before  Christ  '  our  passover,'  or  Paschal  lamb,  had 
been  slain,  before  he  had  become  '  a  curse  for  us  '  by 
his  crucifixion,  we  could  not  receive  4  the  promise  of  the 
Spirit,'  or  the  '  promised  Spirit  through  faith.'  When 
4  we  were  yet  without  strength, '  that  is  without  the 
Spirit,  which  did  not  come  till  after  the  crucifixion,  4  in 
due  time  Christ  died  for  the  ungodly,'  and  now  4  being 
justified  by  his  blood,  we  shall  be  saved  from  wrath 
through  him  ;  for,  if  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were 
reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son,  much  more, 
being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life;  and 
not  only  so,  but  we  also  joy  in  God  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we  have  now  received  the 
atonement.' 

The  blood  of  the  Messianic  Paschal  Lamb  'justifies' 


SACRED    MEALS    OF    THE    ESSENBS.  22o 

and  *  atones,'  and  saves  from  wrath,  as  the  blood  of 
the  Mosaic  Paschal  lamb  saved  the  Israelites  from  the 
avenging  Angel,  who  can  forgive  transgressions  or  not 
do  so,  according  to  his  will.1 

This  undeniable  connection  of  Paul's  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  with  an  allegorical  interpretation  of  the  Old 
Testament,  such  as  can  only  be  proved  to  have  prevailed 
among  the  Essenic,  and  thus  the  Therapeutic  Jews, 
leads  us  to  suppose  that  Paul  may  have  drawn  from  an 
Essenic  source.  The  essentially  genuine  and  Essenic 
Epistle  of  Barnabas  leaves  no  doubt  that  the  Paulinic 
doctrine  of  the  atonement  was  that  of  the  Christian 
Essenes.  But  independently  of  this  testimony,  some 
Essenic  rites  seem  to  point  to  the  existence  of  such 
a  doctrine  among  the  pre-Christian  Essenes. 

The  holy  daily  meal  of  the  Essenes  was  preceded 
by  the  solemnity  of  a  water  baptism.  The  members  of 
the  secret  society,  who  had  sworn  not  to  communicate 
a  certain  knowledge  to  the  uninitiated,  appeared  in 
their  '  white  garments  as  if  they  were  sacred,'  they 
went  into  the  refectory  '  purified  as  into  a  holy  temple,' 
and  prayer  was  offered  up  before  and  after  the  sacred 
meal.  It  can  only  be  compared  with  the  Paschal  meal 
of  the  other  Jews.  The  bread  figured  in  both,  whilst 
among  the  Essenes  water  took  the  place  of  the  wine  at 
their  meal  on  common  days.  But  an  especially  sacred 
meal  may  be  presumed  to  have  been  held  by  the 
Essenes  on  the  14th  Nisan,  and  on  this  occasion  the 
partaking  of  the  cup  with  wine  may  have  been  excep- 
tionally ordained.  As  a  similar  exception  to  the  rule, 
the  Therapeuts  were  permitted  to  anoint  themselves 
exceptionally  on  the  Sabbath-day,  to  mark  its  holiness. 
Since  the  Essenes  felt  constrained  by  their  principles 
not  to  slay  the  lamb  ordained  by  the  law,  they  would 
have  especial  reason  to  give  a  typical  and  Messianic 
significance  to  the  bread  and  to  the  wine  of  the  Jewish 

1  1  Cor.  ii.  2,  v.  7  ;  Gal.  iii.  13,  14,  23;  Rom.  v.  6-11 ;  Ex.  xxiii.  21. 

Q 


226  PAUL   AXD   THE    ESSEXES. 

Paschal  feast,  and  to  transmit  this  significance  to  the 
bread  of  their  daily  meal,  all  the  more  if  they  had  not 
a  specially  solemn  meal  on  the  14th  Nisan. 

The  allegorising  Essenes,  especially  the  Therapents 
of  Egypt,  could  not  fail  to  connect  the  bread  on  their 
daily  table  with  the  twelve  shewbread  on  '  the  Lord's 
table.'  They  were  placed  near  the  candlestick,  the 
form  of  which  resembled  a  tree,  so  that  the  candlestick 
could  be  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  the  tree  of  life  and 
knowledge,  which  '  beareth  fruit  every  month.'  Thus 
the  twelve  shewbread  would  be  regarded  as  symbols  of 
the  yearly  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life.  This  symbolical 
meaning  of  the  shewbread  would  lead  the  Essenes  to 
regard  the  daily  bread  on  their  table  as  a  symbol  of 
the  bread  of  life,  and  thus  of  Christ,  the  Wisdom  of 
God.  This  assumption  is  in  so  far  confirmed  by  Philo 
and  Josephus,  both  of  whom  were  probably  allied  with 
the  Essenes,  inasmuch  as  these  writers  of  the  first 
century  connect  the  twelve  shewbread  with  the  twelve 
months  of  the  year,  and  thus  indirectly  with  the  tree 
of  life  bearing  fruit  every  month.  To  this  interpre- 
tation seem  also  to  point  the  other  designations  of  the 
shewbread  in  Holy  Writ,  as  '  the  perpetual  bread  '  or 
'  food  of  God,'  or  the  '  holy  bread,'  which  in  the  Syriac 
text  is  called  '  the  bread  of  the  table  of  the  Lord.'  In 
the  Book  of  Proverbs  the  Wisdom  of  God  (Christ)  is 
recorded  to  say :  4  Come,  eat  of  my  bread,  and  drink  of 
the  wine  which  I  have  mingled.' x 

The  Egyptians  represented  the  tree  of  life  as  a 
palm,  or  as  a  mulberry  fig-tree,  the  former  of  which 
has  fresh  shoots  every  month,  whilst  there  are  mul- 
berry figs  every  month.2     The  stem  of  the  Egyptian 

1  The  two  rows  evidently  referred  to  the  six  signs  of  the  Zodiac  in  the 
upper  and  to  those  in  the  lower  hemisphere.     Prov.  ix.  5. 

2  The  parable  of  the  fig-tree,  whose  time  of  figs  was  not  yet  come, 
though  fruit  was  expected  on  it,  seems  to  he  best  explained  b}r  the  mulberry 
fiir-tree. 


THE    BREAD    AND    WINE    OF    WISDOM.  227 

tree  of  life  was  in  pre-Mosaic  times  represented  as 
connected  with  the  figure  of  the  goddess  Hathor,  '  the 
eye  of  the  sim,'  or  of  Nutpe,  the  expanse  of  heaven. 
In  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  the  tree  of  life  and  know- 
ledge was  in  Egypt  represented  by  the  figure  of  the 
Divine  Wisdom,  or  Sophia,  which  formed  the  stem  of 
the  tree  and  dispensed  to  the  souls  of  the  departed  the 
water  of  life  and  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life.  At  this 
time  the  Therapeuts  were  established  near  Alexandria  ; 
and  then  wrere  composed  in  this  city,  probably  under 
Essenic  influence,  the  Apocrypha  of  the  Septuagint  or 
scriptures  of  hidden  wisdom.  In  one  of  them,  in  the 
Book  Ecclesiasticus,  the  Wisdom  described  as  palm-tree 
and  vine,  that  is,  as  tree  of  life,  is  recorded  to  say  : 
'  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  be  desirous  of  me,  and  fill 
yourselves  with  my  fruits  ;  for  my  memorial  is  sweeter 
than  honey,  and  mine  inheritance  than  the  honeycomb. 
They  that  eat  of  me  shall  yet  be  hungry,  and  they 
that  drink  of  me  shall  yet  be  thirsty.' 1 

In  Hebrew,  to  make  an  alliance  or  covenant,  or  to 
eat,  is  expressed  by  a  similar  term,  for  '  bara,'  to  eat, 
forms  the  root  of  '  berith,'  or  covenant.  In  this  sense, 
the  eating  of  the  shew^bread,  or  perpetual  bread,  by  the 
priests,  is  designated  as  a  '  memorial '  and  an  '  ever- 
lasting covenant.'  Not  only  was  bread  and  wine  brought 
forth  by  Melchisedec  when  he  blessed  Abraham,  but  it 
was  offered  to  God  and  eaten  before  him  by  Jethro  and 
the  elders  of  Israel,  and  some,  at  least,  of  the  mourning 
Israelites  broke  bread  and  drunk  '  the  cup  of  conso- 
lation '  in  remembrance  of  the  departed,  '  to  comfort 
them  for  the  dead.'  <  A  new  covenant '  was  announced 
by  Jeremiah  for  a  future  day,  when  God  would  write 
his  law  in  the  hearts,  when  all  shall  know  God,  and 
when  he  wall  forgive  iniquity  and  no  longer  remember 
sin.     Looking  for  allegories,  the  Essenes  would  connect 

1  Ecclus.  xxiv.  19-21. 

3  Lev.  xxiv.  5-9 ;  Hos.  ix.  4  ;  Jer.xvi.  7  ;  xxxi.  31  -34. 
Q  2 


228  PAUL   AND   THE   ESSEXES. 

this  new  and  atoning  covenant  with  the  reign  of  the 
Angel-Messiah  whom  they  expected,  with  the  Angel  of 
the  Lord  who  can  pardon  transgression.  To  those 
Essenes  who  regarded  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah, 
Jesns  Christ  was  the  incarnation  of  the  Divine  Wisdom 
who  distributes  the  heavenly  manna,  the  bread  of  life. 
If  the  Essenes,  like  Paul,  identified  Christ  with  '  the 
Wisdom  of  God,'  it  followed  that  Christ,  or  the  Wisdom 
of  God,  must  in  a  figurative  sense  be  eaten  and  drunk, 
in  accordance  with  the  Books  of  Proverbs  and  Ecclesias- 
ticus,  and  Egyptian  representations. 

Only  in  this  figurative  sense,  and  in  connection  with 
this  Hebrew-Egyptian  symbolism,  Jesus  can  have  said,  as 
according  to  the  fourth  Gospel  he  has  said,  that  his 
flesh  is  '  the  living  bread  which  came  down  from 
heaven,'  and  that  whosoever  shall  eat  thereof  shall  not 
die  ;  but  that  he  that  shall  not  '  eat  the  flesh  of  the  son 
of  man  and  drink  his  blood  '  has  not  '  eternal  life,'  and 
Jesus  will  not  '  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day.' 1  Whether 
Jesus  really  has  spoken  these  words,  and  why  the  first 
Evangelists  should  have  kept  them  in  secret,  depends 
upon  the  question,  whether  Jesus  regarded  himself  as 
antitype  of  the  Paschal  Lamb,  and  his  death  as  the 
atoning  and  vicarious  sacrifice  which  would  essentially 
change  the  relation  between  God  and  man.  For  ac- 
cording to  the  above  narrative,  Jesus  also  said  that  he 
would  give  his  flesh  as  heavenly  bread  '  for  the  life  of 
the  world.' 

Unless  we  have  failed  to  prove  that  the  Essenes  and 
Therapeuts  expected  an  Angel-Messiah,  and  that  many 
regarded  Jesus  as  the  incarnation  of  the  same,  we  are 
now  permitted  to  assume  that  the  Essenes  would  hold 
the  '  angels'  bread '  to  have  become  flesh  and  blood  in 
Jesus  Christ,  that  they  would  believe,  as  Paul  did,  that 
the  Paschal  bread  broken  by  Jesus,  had  become  '  the 
communion  of  the  body  of  Christ,'  the  cup  blessed  had 

1  John  yi.  48-58. 


THE  BLOOD  OF  THE  COVENANT.  229 

become  '  the  communion  of  the  blood  of  Christ.'  This 
assumption  is  confirmed  by  Clement  of  Alexandria,  to 
whom  the  ancient  doctrines  of  the  Therapeuts  in  and 
near  that  city  must  have  been  well  known,  and  who 
thus  interprets  the  Passover  of  the  Christians :  '  The 
blood  points  out  to  us  the  Word,  for  as  rich  blood  the 
Word  (that  is,  Christ)  has  been  infused  into  life  .... 
the  Word  Himself,  the  beloved  One,  our  nourisher, 
hath  shed  His  own  blood  for  us,  to  save  humanity  .  .  .  ; 
the  flesh  figuratively  represents  to  us  the  Holy  Spirit,' 
and  thus  '  the  Lord  who  is  Spirit  and  Word.' l 

Without  sanctioning  the  Essenic  views  about  the 
Angel-Messiah,  and  his  sacrificial  death  as  antitype  of 
the  Paschal  lamb,  which  expectations  Jesus  seems  to 
have  opposed,  he  must  have  referred  to  his  approach- 
ing death,  when  for  the  last  time,  and  as  he  had 
heartily  longed  to  do,  he  partook  of  the  Paschal  lamb 
with  his  disciples.  We  may  presume  that  the  acci- 
dental coincidence  of  the  Passover  Feast  with  his  death, 
led  Jesus  to  refer  on  this,  his  Last  Supper,  to  the 
liberation  of  Israel  from  the  Egyptian  house  of  bon- 
dage, of  which  the  Paschal  lamb,  at  that  time  insti- 
tuted was  the  '  memorial.'  This  connection  might  have 
further  led  him  to  suggest,  that  the  Mosaic  Exodus 
was  a  parallel  to  the  liberation  of  mankind  from  that 
spiritual  bondage,  against  which  Jesus  had  protested 
by  word  and  deed,  by  an  obedience  unto  death.  In 
this  sense  Jesus  could  connect  his  approaching  death, 
not  with  the  Paschal  lamb  which  he  had  just  eaten,  and 
which  on  that  same  14th  Nisan  Moses  had  ordered  to 
be  annually  slain  1600  years  ago,  but  with  the  libera- 
tion of  Israel  which  followed  it  on  the  15th  Nisan,  on 
the  day  when  Jesus  was  to  be  crucified. 

If  the  new,  the  spiritual  and  atoning  covenant 
announced  by  Jeremiah  was  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
which  Jesus  had  come  to  establish  on  earth,  he  might 

1  1  Cor.  x.  10;  Paed.i.6. 


230  PAUL   AXD   THE   ESSEXES. 

have  compared  it  with  the  '  memorial,'  memorial-feast, 
or  covenant  instituted  by  the  eternal  Wisdom  of  God, 
represented  in  pre-Christian  times  as  distributing  celes- 
tial food  and  drink  to  the  souls  of  men.  Eegarding 
the  Divine  covenant  made  with  Moses  as  a  type  of  the 
new  covenant,  and  since  the  former  was  symbolised  by 
blood,  and  thus  by  the  symbol  of  the  soul,  by  '  the 
blood  of  the  covenant,  which  the  Lord  hath  made,' 
Jesus  could  not  fear  to  be  misunderstood  if  he  called 
that  new  covenant  which  he  brought  '  the  New  Testa- 
ment (or  covenant)  in  my  blood.' *  Jesus  could  say 
this  without  even  indirectly  suggesting  that  his  death 
was  typified  by  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  that 
the  blood  of  the  yearly  slain  lamb  points  to  his  blood, 
which  the  following  day  would  be  shed  on  the  cross,  in 
consequence  of  a  presumable  affixing  of  his  body  by 
nails  instead  of  ropes  according  to  Eoman  custom. 
What  Jesus  is  said  to  have  commanded  was  to  be  done 
not  in  remembrance  of  his  death  only,  but  of  his  life. 
As  bread  was  eaten  at  the  burial  of  the  dead,  and  '  the 
cup  of  consolation  '  was  partaken  by  Israelites  '  to  com- 
fort them  for  the  dead,'  so  Jesus  may  have  commanded, 
and  we  believe  that  he  did  so  command,  his  disciples 
and  followers  to  eat  bread  and  drink  wine,  as  they  had 
just  done  at  the  Passover,  but  to  do  so  henceforth  in 
remembrance  of  him. 

Jesus  could  not  designate  himself  as  '  the  Passover ' 
or  Paschal  lamb,  slain  for  us,  as  Paul  calls  him,  without 
admitting  the  Divine  sanction  of  his  death  on  the  cross, 
nor  without  thereby  implying  that  his  death  was  to  be 
an  event  which  would  essentially  change  the  relations 
between  God  and  man.  Since  no  possible  types  in  the 
Old  Testament  could  be  referred  to  an  atoning  Messianic 
death,  since  even  the  allegorising  Targum  did  not  so 
interpret  the  isolated    passage  in   the  Book  of  Isaiah 

1  Ex.  xxiv.  8 ;  Ilebr.  ix.   19,  20 ;  Matt.   xxvi.  28 ;  Rom.  iii.  24,  25 ; 
1  Cor.  xi.  25. 


THE   NEW   SACRAMENT.  231 

about  the  sufferings  of  the  servant  of  God,  Jesus  could 
not  have  left  his  disciples  in  ignorance  or  doubt  as  to 
the  importance  of  his  death.  The  knowledge  of  the 
atoning  death  of  Jesus  as  antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb, 
6  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  might  have  prevented 
Judas  Iscariot  from  betraying  innocent  blood,  and 
certainly  would  have  prevented  his  attempt  to  atone 
for  his  crime  by  suicide.  We  saw  that  the  first  three 
Gospels  are  silent  with  regard  to  the  Messianic  antitype 
of  the  Paschal  lamb,  and  the  recorded  prayer  of  Jesus 
in  Gethsemane,  and  his  words  on  the  cross,  seem  even 
to  exclude  the  belief  of  Jesus  that  his  death  on  the 
cross  was  divinely  appointed  as  means  of  salvation. 

Yet  Paul  solemnly  states,  that  a  new  sacrament  has 
been  instituted  by  Jesus,  instead  of  the  Paschal  rite, 
and  that  this  fact  has  been  communicated  to  him  in 
some  mysterious  manner  by  '  the  Lord.'  He  asserts 
that  'the  Lord  Jesus,  in  the  night  when  he  was  be- 
trayed, took  bread,  and  pronounced  the  thanksgiving, 
brake  it,  and  said  :  This  is  my  body,  which  is  given  for 
you,  that  do  in  remembrance  of  me.  After  the  same 
manner  (he  took)  also  the  cup  after  supper  and  said : 
And  this  cup  is  the  new  Testament  in  my  blood,  that  do 
ye,  as  often  as  ye  drink  it,  in  remembrance  of  me.  For 
as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do 
show  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come.'1 

Paul  accepted  and  applied  to  Jesus,  as  we  tried  to 
show,  the  Essenic  doctrines  about  Christ  as  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  and  about  his  atoning  death  as  Lamb  of  God, 
with  which  doctrines  that  about  the  Last  Supper  is 
inseparably  connected.  The  earliest  account  of  the 
Last  Supper,  as  contained  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  is  repeated  literally  in  the  Gospel  after  the 
Paulinic  Evangelist  Luke,  as  if  no  other  than  Paul's 
authority  could  be  claimed  for  it.  Luke  distinguishes 
between   the  Passover   and   the  new  sacrament,  which 

1  1  Cor.  xi.  23-26  ;  comp.  Luke  xxii.  10,20. 


232  PAUL    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

Matthew  and  Mark  do  not.  The  fourth  Gospel  does  not 
say,  but  implies  that  Jesus  introduced  a  new  institu- 
tion. This  omission,  all  the  more  important  because 
the  Gospel  after  John  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Lamb  of 
God,  we  have  explained  by  the  impossibility  to  har- 
monise the  different  dates  about  the  crucifixion  in  the 
first  three  Gospels  and  in  the  fourth  Gospel  respec- 
tively. 

Assuming  that  what  Paul  had  received  about  the 
Lord's  Supper  had  been  communicated  to  him  by  one 
or    more    organs    of   the    Essenic  secret    tradition,1  he 
might  have  designated  this  communication  as  come  to 
him  from  'the  Lord,'  because  it  harmonised  with  the 
voice  in  his  heart,   with   the  Father's   revelation  of  his  • 
Son  in  him  on  his  way  to  Damascus.     Paul's  narrative 
about  the  Last  Supper,  like  that  about  the  resurrection, 
seems  to  have  been  the  source  of  all  parallel  notices  in 
the  Gospels.      The  Apostle's  accounts  were  certainly 
written  some  time  before  the  composition  of  the  earliest 
Gospels  transmitted  to  us,  and  probably  about  eighteen 
years  after  his  conversion  to  the  faith  of  Stephen  whom 
we   have  connected    with    the  Essenic    Therapeuts    of 
Alexandria.     What  we  may  now  call  the  Essenic  inter- 
pretation of  the  reported  institution  of  the  Last  Supper, 
whether   strictly  historical  or   not,  had   become  firmly 
established    in    many    Christian  Churches  before  Paul 
wrote  his  account  of  it. 

The  Apostles  could  believe  his  narrative  to  be  based 
on  a  historical  fact  in  the  sense  in  which  Essenes  distin- 
guished a  literal  and  a  higher  figurative  meaning  of 
the  Scriptures.  It  was  for  the  Essenes  not  enough  to 
know  what  words  Jesus  did  actually  pronounce  on  this 

1  During  the  three  years  spent  in  Arabia,  after  his  conversion  by  Ananias 
(the  Essene)  to  the  Christian-Essenic  faith,  Saul  may  have  passed  through 
the  Essenic  noviciate  of  three  years,  as  Josephus  seems  to  have  done  with 
Banus.  As  initiated  Essene  Paul  would  have  been  bound  by  oath  not  to 
speak  'the  hidden  wisdom'  to  others  than  'the  perfect'  or  initiated. 
(1  Cor.  ii.  6,  7.) 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    THE    KINGDOM    OF    HEAVEN.         233 

and  on  other  occasions,  they  also  held  it  necessary  to 
find  out  what  his  words  were  meant  to  imply  to  those 
who  had  been  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  allegorical 
Scripture  interpretation,  how  from  the  dead  letter  the 
quickening  spirit  has  to  be  developed.  These  concep- 
tions would  necessarily  lead  those  Essenes  who  believed 
in  Jesus  as  the  representative  of  their  doctrines,  to 
attribute  to  him  words,  possibly  spoken  in  secret,  which 
implied  what  they  felt  convinced  was  in  his  mind,  when 
he  spoke  to  the  people  in  parables  only,  and  when  even 
his  disciples  were  unable  to  understand  all  the  mysteries, 
which  should  afterwards  be  revealed  to  them.  These 
recorded  words  of  Jesus,  recorded  by  Essenes,  but  which 
they  may  never  have  heard  him  speak,  were  to  be  the 
medium  of  conveying  the  method  of  spiritually  discern- 
ing the  more  perfect  doctrine  of  Christ, '  the  mysteries  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.' 

Philo,  and  probably  all  the  initiated  Essenes  in 
pre-Christian  times,  had  enlarged  the  meaning  of  the 
recorded  words  of  Moses,  of  Psalmists,  and  of  Prophets, 
in  order  to  make  them  point,  in  accordance  with  their 
assumed  hidden  meaning,  to  the  Essenic  doctrines  of 
the  Angel-Messiah.  Sooner  or  later  the  Essenes  con- 
nected  with  the  latter  his  atoning  death  as  antitype  of 
the  Paschal  lamb,  and  his  resurrection  as  antitype  of 
the  Paschal  omer  on  the  third  day  after  it.  These  two 
Mosaic  institutions,  by  what  was  written  about  them, 
certainly  did  not  point  typically  to  the  future,  the  one 
to  Messiah's  death,  the  other  to  his  resurrection.  Yet 
they  were  probably  by  Essenes,  and  certainly  by  Paul, 
held  to  convey  the  truth  by  suggesting  it  to  such  to 
whom  in  future  ages  it  would  be  given  to  '  discern  the 
Lord's  body,'  to  regard  the  death  of  Jesus  as  the  antitype 
of  the  Paschal  lamb,  and  thus  the  Paschal  lamb  as  a 
divinely  instituted  symbol  of  the  Angel-Messiah's  sacri- 
ficial death  as  the  Lamb  of  God. 

Paul  seems  to  have  confidently  believed  during  the 


234  PAUL   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

first  years  after  his  conversion  to  the  faith  of  Stephen, 
that  Jesns  had  recognised  the  Messianic  conceptions  of 
the  Essenes,  that  he  did  reveal  himself  as  the  Angel- 
Messiah  and  Lamb  of  God,  although  not  to  the  people, 
yet  to  those  to  whom  it  was  given  to  know  '  the 
mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,'  and  that  he,  as 
antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb,  had  instituted  a  new 
sacrament  in  the  place  of  the  Passover,  and  in  con- 
nection with  his  atonement  by  '  the  blood  of  his  cross.' 
Paul  may  also  have  for  a  time  believed  that  this  was 
the  doctrine  of  Christ  which  the  Apostles  kept  in  secret, 
its  publication  being  forbidden  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
Jewish  Church.  But  already  his  mysterious  meeting 
with  Peter,  and  still  more,  the  fear  which  he  inspired 
in  all  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem,  notwithstanding  the 
conciliatory  conduct  of  Barnabas,  must  have  convinced 
Paul  that  Jesus  had  not  sanctioned  the  typical  refer- 
ence of  the  Paschal  lamb  and  of  the  Paschal  omer  to 
himself  as  to  the  Angel-Messiah  whom  only  Essenes 
expected.  Paul  must  have  known,  that  Jesus  had  not 
been  crucified,  contemporaneously  with  the  Paschal  lamb, 
on  the  14th,  but  on  the  15th  Nisan,  so  that  there  was  no 
historical  foundation  at  all  for  the  typical  scheme  of 
Paul,  which  he  seems  to  have  received  through  the 
Therapeuts,  to  whom  Stephen  belonged. 

The  Essenic  doctrine  of  Christ  which  Paul  promul- 
gated could  be  developed  from  the  Old  Testament  by 
a  figurative  interpretation  of  the  same,  such  as  the 
following  : 

The  Angel  of  the  Lord,  and  therefore  Christ,  the 
spiritual  Eock  which  followed  the  Israelites,  can  pardon 
the  transgressions  of  men,  for  God's  '  Name  '  or  Spirit  is 
in  him,  whilst  it  had  been  withdrawn  from  mankind. 
Because  Jesus  is  the  incarnation  of  the  sin-removing, 
the  atoning  Angel,  therefore '  the  body '  and  '  the  blood  ' 
of  Jesus  Christ,  that  is,  the  incarnate  '  Wisdom  of  God,' 
constitutes  the  first  '  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost '  after 


THE    PRESENCE    OF    CHRIST.  235 

the  fall  of  Adam.  Whosoever  believes  this,  receives 
the  same  spirit,  Christ  dwells  in  him  by  faith,  and  such 
a  believer  becomes  also  a  temple  of  God,  for  the  Spirit 
of  God  dwells  in  him  again  since  Christ  has  brought 
it  back  from  heaven.  By  the  quickening  or  lifegiving 
spirit  which  Jesus,  as  '  the  man  from  heaven,'  as  the 
Angel  of  God,  has  brought  to  mankind;  by  the  first 
manifestation  of  such  flesh  and  blood  as  can  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God  ;  by  Him  who,  as  Son  of  David  and  as 
Son  of  God,  was  the  first  proof  that  '  mortal  can  put 
on  immortality ' ;  by  '  the  firstfruits  of  them  that  sleep  ' 
a  transformation  of  human  nature  has  taken  place. 
Henceforth  mankind  forms  One  mystical  body,  for 
God's  Spirit  is  now  potentially  in  every  man,  since  the 
incarnate  and  anointed  Angel  has  brought  those  near 
who  were  afar  off  so  long  as  they  had  not  this  spiritual 
link,  which  constitutes  the  real  presence  of  Christ. 

The  manna  in  the  wilderness  was  the  symbol  of  the 
<  angels'  food,'  of  the  spiritual  sustenance  of  man,  of 
the  power  which  creates  conscience.  The  fruit  from  the 
tree  of  life  and  knowledge,  the  bread  and  water  of  life, 
comes  to  him  from  without,  whence  Christ  Jesus,  the 
Angel  of  God  and  Bread  of  Life,  has  brought  it.  The 
mystical  breaking  of  bread,  the  eating  of  bread  before 
the  Lord,  refers  to  this  bread  from  heaven  ;  and  the 
bread  in  the  hand  of  the  priest,  as  once  the  Paschal 
bread  in  the  hand  of  Jesus,  symbolises  the  extraneous 
source  of  the  soul's  sustenance.1  In  a  similar  sense  the 
incarnate  Angel  is  the  tree  of  life,  the  vine  which  God 
has  planted,  and  the  life-giving  essence  rises  from  the 
Divine  root  through  the  vine  to  the  branches.  In  the 
unity  of  that  mysterious  vital  force  which  was  believed 
to  have  an  absolutely  non-material  origin,  root,  vine, 
and  branches  are  one.  In  all  men  is  Christ  Jesus,  in 
the  same  sense  that  God  the  Father  is  in  Him  who  is 

1  In  this  sense  Keble's  revised  lines  convey  a  true  meaning :  '  As  in  the 
hand,  so  in  the  heart.' 


236  TAUL    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

the  Son  of  God  '  according  to  the  Spirit  of  Holiness,' 
whilst  according  to  the  flesh  lie  is  the  Son  of  David. 
By  his  spiritualised  flesh,  which  was  only  '  like '  sinful 
flesh,  by  flesh  with  God's  Spirit,  the  incarnate  Angel  of 
God  has  brought  about  a  reconciliation  of  the  world  with 
God,  the  spiritual  atonement,  the  righteousness  of  God. 

At  the  time  of  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  not  yet  come.  This  was  the  Paulinic,  and 
Ave  may  now  venture  to  say,  the  Essenic,  doctrine  of 
Christ.  If  the  direct  connection  has  been  sufficiently 
proved  between  the  Paulinic  doctrine  of  the  atonement 
and  the  Old  Testament-doctrine  of  the  atoning  Angel  of 
God,  avIio  was  incarnate  in  Jesus,  the  Angel-Messiah, 
then  it  follows  conclusively  that  Jesus  cannot  have 
sanctioned  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  by  his  blood, 
without  at  the  same  time  revealing  himself  as  the 
anointed  Angel,  as  Angel-Messiah,  of  which  doctrine 
there  is  no  trace  in  the  Scriptures  before  the  Captivity, 
nor  in  the  first  three  Gospels.  Although  Jesus  regarded 
himself  only  as  the  anointed  Man,  and  in  this  sense  as 
the  Messiah,  he  may  yet  probably  have  been  led  by  the 
chance-circumstance  of  his  crucifixion  taking  place 
during  the  Passover,  to  institute  a  new  Paschal  or 
Easter  rite.  We  believe  that  lie  did  so,  and  that  he 
connected  it  with,  though  he  did  not  substitute  it  for, 
the  Mosaic  Paschal  rite.  But  we  may  confidently 
assert  that  Jesus,  if  he  has  instituted  a  new  sacrament, 
he  did  not  thereby,  or  by  any  word  or  intended  inter- 
pretation of  the  same,  wish  to  convey  that  his  ap- 
proaching death  was  the  antitype  of  the  Paschal  lamb, 
a  sin-removing,  atoning,  and  vicarious  sacrificial  death, 
of  which  the  Paschal  lamb  was  by  God  intended  ■  as  a 
symbol. 

The  mission  of  Jesus  on  earth  was  not  finished  on 
the  14th  Nisan,  when  the  Paschal  lamb  was  slain  and 
by  him  eaten  with  his  disciples  ;  but  on  the  15th  Nisan, 
on   the    same  day   of   the    year  when   Moses    led    the 


THE    CREED    OF   THE   DEED.  237 

children  of  Israel  out  of  the  bondage  of  Egypt.  Jesus 
wished  to  put  an  end  to  the  spiritual  bondage  of  Israel 
and  of  mankind.  He  pointed  out  to  man  his  freedom 
to  become  a  citizen  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  had  shut  up  by  taking  away 
the  key  of  knowledge,  by  their  preventing,  instead  of 
fostering  by  word  and  deed,  the  conviction  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  in  man. 

Jesus  has  indirectly  protested  against  the  Essenic 
doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  by  his  remark  that  John 
the  Baptist  or  Essene  did  not  belong  to  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  This  kingdom,  the  rule  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
in  and  through  man,  John  regarded  as  future,  though 
near,  Jesus  as  being  already  come,  as  being  like  the 
Word  of  God  near  to  man,  that  is,  in  his  heart  that  he 
may  do  it ;  and  Paul  testified  that  it  had  not  come  till 
after  the  atoning  sacrificial  death  of  Christ.  From  this 
and  from  other  words  of  Jesus  recorded  in  the  first 
three  Gospels,  it  follows  that  Jesus  must  have  protested 
against  the  Essenic  denial  of  the  presence  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  man  and  in  all  ages,  of  which  doctrine  that 
of  the  atonement  is  the  necessary  consequence.  If  it 
had  entered  the  mind  of  anyone  to  conceive,  before  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  would  not  be 
given  to  mankind  till  after  the  sacrificial  death  of  the 
Messiah,  after  the  glorification  of  Jesus,  as  the  fourth 
Gospel  asserts,  in  harmony  with  Paul's  teaching,  then 
against  such  a  doctrine  would  Jesus  have  solemnly 
protested. 

The  dogma  of  Jesus  was  that  which  is  contained  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.     His  creed  was  the  deed. 

The  spiritual  union  and  communion  between  man 
and  his  God  :  this  spiritual  at-one-ment  is  the  atonement 
or  reconciliation  of  which  it  can  be  said  that  we  have 
received  it  by  Jesus  Christ,  inasmuch  as  the  man  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  whom  God  'has  anointed  with  the  Holy 
Ghost    and    with    power,'   has    first    clearly    and    fully 


238  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSEXES. 

proclaimed  this  relationship  by  word  and  deed.  The 
atonement  of  Jesns  Christ  is  the  covenant  of  a  good 
conscience  with  God. 

Retrospect. 

The  convert  to  the  faith  of  Stephen  became  the 
proclaimer  of  Jesns  as  the  Angel-Messiah  whom  no 
other  Jews  than  the  Essenes  and  Therapents  expected. 
Paul's  doctrine  about  Christ  was  not  that  which  was 
sanctioned  by  Jesns  and  by  the  Apostles  whom  he  had 
chosen.  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene,  the  Ashai  or 
bather,  and  therefore  called  Assai  or  Essai,  as  Philo 
called  the  Essenes,  did  not  recognise  Jesus  as  Him  that 
should  come,  that  is,  according  to  Essenic  interpretation 
of  Scripture,  as  the  Angel-Messiah.  Yet  John  paved 
the  way  for  the  application  of  that  new  doctrine  to 
Jesus  by  Stephen  and  Paul.  The  Baptist  believed  that 
the  promised  Messiah  who  should  come  after  him  would 
be  an  incarnate  Angel  and  would  baptize  men  with  the 
Holy  Ghost.  So  little  did  he  think  it  possible  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  was  already  in  mankind  that,  years  after 
his  death,  disciples  of  his  had  not  even  heard  that  there 
is  a  Holy  Ghost.  No  disciples  of  John  were  by  him 
prepared  to  understand  how  Jesus  and  contemporaries 
of  his  could  by  the  Spirit  of  God  be  enabled  to  drive 
out  devils.  But  some  disciples  of  John  or  Essenes, 
after  the  death  of  John  and  of  Jesus,  believed  in  the 
latter  as  the  Angel-Messiah,  and  therefore  expected  the 
baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  These  Essenes  were  the 
forerunners  of  Paid. 

Following  in  the  footsteps  of  Stephen  whom  he  had 
seen  stoned  to  death,  Paul  taught  that  Jesus  was  the 
Angel  who  had  been  with  the  Fathers  in  the  wilderness, 
the  spiritual  Eock  who  had  followed  them.  According 
to  Paul's  Gospel  the  Holy  Ghost  was  sent  by  God  to 
mankind  in  consequence  of  the  atoning,  sacrificial,  and 


THE    ONE    FOUNDATION.  239 

vicarious  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  Paul  does  not  refer  to 
the  Pentecostal  miracle,  which  is  narrated  in  the  Acts 
(of  Luke,  his  fellow-worker?),  but  he  certainly  believed  in 
the  miracle  which  he  asserts  to  have  happened  fifty  days 
before  the  Pentecost.  Paul  taught  that  Jesus  was 
crucified  as  the  antitype  of  the  Paschal  Lamb,  and  that 
he  rose  from  the  dead  '  the  third  day  according  to  the 
Scriptures,'  that  is,  as  antitype  of  the  Paschal  omer  con- 
taining the  first  ripened  barley  which  was  waved  before 
the  Lord  on  the  16th  Nisan,  fifty  days  before  the  day 
of  Pentecost. 

Between  the  doctrines  of  Jesus  and  those  of  Paul 
there  was  not  the  same  fundamental  difference  as 
between  the  doctrines  of  Jesus  and  those  of  John  the 
Baptist,  although  the  latter  and  Paul  both  represented 
Essenic  doctrines,  especially  that  of  the  Angel-Messiah, 
which  Jesus  had  not  sanctioned.  Because  Paul  believed 
that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  come,  because  he 
recognised  the  Spirit  of  God  among  the  Gentiles  as 
among  the  Jews,  therefore  the  twelve  Apostles  recog- 
nised him  as  a  chosen  organ  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
thus  as  a  follower  of  Jesus.  They  believed  and  taught 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God, 
because  the  man  Jesus  had  by  God  been  anointed  '  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power,'  had  been  made  Christ. 
But  Paul  believed  and  taught,  as  Stephen  had  done 
before  him,  that  Jesus  was  for  quite  another  reason  the 
Son  of  God  according  to  the  Spirit  of  Holiness,  because 
he  was  the  risen  incarnate  Angel  of  God,  who  created  the 
world,  the  man  from  heaven,  the  Angel-Messiah,  whom 
only  the  Essenes  among  the  Jews  expected. 

In  spite  of  the  essential  difference  of  the  doctrine 
about  the  person  of  Christ,  Paul  could  and  did  agree 
with  the  other  Apostles  in  this,  that  the  only  foun- 
dation of  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Simon  Jonah,  that  is,  Simon  the  dove,  the  symbol  of 
the  Spirit,  he  who  was  also  called  Peter  the  Eock,  the 


240  PAUL    AXD    THE    ESSEXES. 

Apostle  whose  name  referred  to  the  spirit  and  to  the 
rock,  to  the  spiritual  Rock,  was  moved  by  that  Spirit 
of  God  when  he  made  his  great  confession  about  Jesus 
being  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God,  who  pro- 
mised to  build  his  Church  on  this  spiritual  foundation, 
on  this  spiritual  rock.  Paul  acknowledged  that  the 
same  '  spiritual  rock  '  is  Christ. 

The  doctrine  of  the  anointed  Angel,  of  the  man 
from  heaven,  the  Creator  of  the  world,  the  doctrine  of 
the  atoning  sacrificial  death  of  Jesus  by  the  blood  of 
his  cross,  the  doctrine  of  the  Messianic  antitype  of  the 
Paschal  lamb  and  of  the  Paschal  omer,  and  thus  of 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  '  the  third  day  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures,' — these  doctrines  of  Paul,  which 
can  with  more  or  less  certainty  be  connected  with  the 
Essenes,  could  not  be  and  were  not  recognised  by  the 
twelve  Apostles.  It  becomes  almost  a  certainty  that 
Eusebius  was  right  in  surmising,  that  Essenic  writings 
have  been  used  by  Paul  and  the  Evangelists.  Not 
Jesus,  but  Paul  is  the  cause  of  the  separation  of  the 
Jews  from  the  Christians. 


241 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

APOLLOS   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

Introduction — The  Christology  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews — '  The  High- 
priest  of  our  confession ' — Conclusion. 

Introduction. 

The  '  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  '  is  said  to  have  been  like- 
wise inscribed  '  to  the  Alexandrians,'  and  it  seems  to 
have  in  view  the  Church  at  Alexandria,  to  which  its 
probable  author,  Apollos,  belonged.  In  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Alexandria  the  Egyptian  Essenes  or  Therapeuts 
had  their  settlements,  and  with  these  Greek-speaking 
Jews,  Grecians  or  Hellenists,  we  have  connected  Philo, 
and  Stephen,  the  forerunner  of  Paul.  The  connection 
of  Apollos  with  Paul  renders  it  probable  at  the  outset 
that  the  former,  the  eloquent  and  zealous  Jew  of 
Alexandria,  stood  likewise  in  connection  with  the  Thera- 
peuts. All  we  know  about  Apollos  harmonises  with  the 
characteristic  features  of  the  author  of  this  Epistle,  for 
which  reason,  ever  since  Luther,  many  Biblical  inter- 
preters have  regarded  Apollos  as  its  composer.  This 
hypothesis  receives  a  new  confirmation  from  two  re- 
ported facts,  that  Apollos  was  a  disciple  of  John,  or 
an  Essene,  and  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  by 
Eusebius  especially  mentioned  among  those  Scriptures 
of  which  he  regarded  it  '  highly  probable  '  that  they 
stood  in  direct  connection  with  the  written  tradition  of 
the  Therapeuts. 

The  Therapeuts   distinguished   a  figurative   from  a 
literal  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament.  Their  deeper 

K 


242  APOLLOS  AND   THE  ESSENES. 

knowledge  or  gnosis  we  may  identify  with  *  the  more 
perfect  way  of  God,'  in  which  Aqnila  and  his  wife  in- 
structed Apollos.  The  latter  having  known  only  '  the 
baptism  of  John,'  like  him  seems  not  to  have  recog- 
nised in  Jesus  the  Angel-Messiah,  whom  all  the  Initiated 
among  the  Essenes  expected.  But  the  initiation  in  the 
mysteries  of  tradition,  by  Aqnila  and  Priscilla,  taught 
Apollos  the  disciple  of  John,  that  Jesus  was  the  expected 
Angel-Messiah.  Being  '  fervent  in  the  spirit '  Apollos 
had  '  taught  accurately  about  Jesus,'  except  that  he 
knew  only  the  baptism  of  John,  that  is,  he  had  taught 
only  within  the  range  of  the  Baptist's  teaching,  but  hav- 
ing been  taught  '  the  way  of  God  more  accurately,'  or 
4  the  more  perfect  way  of  God,' — he  knew  and  preached 
'  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ.' 

As  in  the  Acts  '  the  more  perfect '  doctrine,  taught 
by  Aquila  to  Apollos,  is  contrasted  to  the  doctrine  of 
John  the  Baptist,  so  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  '  the 
more  perfect '  doctrine  is  contrasted  to  the  '  elementary 
doctrine  of  Christ.'  '  Therefore  we  will  leave  the  elemen- 
tary doctrine  of  Christ  and  turn  to  the  perfect '  doctrine, 
or  '  to  perfection.' x  In  this  Epistle  the  writer  contrasts 
with  the  '  weak  '  and  unprofitable  law  of  Moses,  which 
6  has  done  nothing  towards  perfection,'  the  covenant  of 
Abraham,  which  according  to  Paul  was  confirmed  '  of 
God  in  Christ.'  Accordingly  Aquila  and  also  his  wife 
Priscilla  must  have  been  initiated  in  the  more  perfect 
doctrine  of  Christ,  which  went  beyond  '  the  baptism  of 
John,'  and  referred  to  the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
by  the  Angel-Messiah.  Since  a  similar  deeper  know- 
ledge or  gnosis,  based  on  a  figurative  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  was  transmitted  by  the  Therapeuts,  we  are 
led  to  surmise  that  Aquila  and  Priscilla  may  have  be- 
longed to  the  Therapeuts,  who  alone  admitted  women  to 
the  initiation  in  their  mysteries,  and  whom  Eusebius 
identifies  with  the  Christians  of  the  Apostolic  age, 

1  Acts  xviii,  24.-2G ;  v.  12;  Heb.  vi.  1. 


AQUILA    OR    ONKELOS.  243 

A  Targumist  and  Greek  translator  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, called  Onkelos,  Ankilas,  Akilas,  or  Aquila,  who, 
like  the  Aquila  of  the  Acts,  was  from  Pontus,  is  said  to 
have  been  brought  up  by  Eabbis  in  Jerusalem  and  to 
have  been  the  contemporary  of  Gamaliel  the  elder  and  of 
the  Apostles.  From  Pontus  also  was  the  Aquila  who  in- 
structed Apollos  in  a  deeper  knowledge  or  gnosis,  which 
we  may  connect  with  the  hereditary  Targumistic  lore. 
The  identity  of  these  two  Aquilas  is  therefore  highly 
probable.  The  Targum  called  after  Onkelos  or  Aquila, 
though  he  was  not  the  author  of  it,  has  been  distinctly 
traced  to  Babylon,  where  it  was  collected,  revised  and 
edited,  and  it  is  distinguished  from  that  called  after 
Jonathan,  composed  in  Judaea.1 

Since  the  doctrine  about  Christ  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews   can   be    proved   to   be  the   Essenic-Paulinic 
doctrine  about  the  Angel-Messiah,  Apollos,  the  pupil  of 
Aquila  (the  Therapeut  ?)  if  he  wrote  this  Epistle,  must 
have  connected  '  the  more  perfect  doctrine  of  Christ,'  to 
which  he  refers,  with  the  secret  tradition,  deeper  know- 
ledge or   gnosis   of  the  Therapeuts,  which   Paul  had 
promulgated  and  Apollos  developed.    Such  a  doctrinal 
development  of  Paulinic  doctrines  as  is  contained  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  renders  it  highly  probable, 
if  not  certain,  that  Apollos,  of  whom  Paul  writes  that 
he  watered  what  the  Apostle  had  planted,  is  the  author 
of  this  Epistle.     We  shall  regard  him  as  such.     But  if 
the   tradition   be   preferred    that  Paul   himself  is    its 
author,  our  argument  would  be  all  the  stronger,  that 
the  doctrinal  system  of  this  Epistle  cannot  be  separated 
from  Essenic  tradition,  with  which  we  have  connected 
Paul.     This  Apostle  also  might  have  written  the  pas- 
sage in  this  Epistle  about  the  elementary  doctrine  of 
Christ  and   the  more  perfect  doctrine,  deeper  know- 
ledge  or  gnosis,  since  he  wrote  to  the  Eomans  that  his 
Gospel   and   the  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ  centred   in 

1   Deutsch,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  '  Versions,'  p.  1657. 

r2 


244  APOLLOS    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

'the  mystery'  which  had  been   kept  in  secret,   or  in 
silence,  since  the  world  began. 

We  regard  the  Church  to  which  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  is  addressed,  probably  that  of  Alexandria,  un- 
like that  of  Antioch,  as  essentially  free  from  the  Gentile- 
excluding  bondage  of  the  law.  The  majority  of  its 
members  we  hold  to  have  been  universalist  Therapeuts, 
who  were  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  snares  of  a 
narrower  Judaism,  presumably  that  of  the  Palestinian 
Essenes,  for  these  insisted  on  the  exclusion  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. Barnabas,  who  probably  belonged  to  those 
Levites  who  had  become  Essenes,  is  said  to  have  taught 
in  Alexandria.  As  Paul  opposed  his  fellow-worker 
Barnabas  in  Antioch,  so  Apollos  seems  to  have  opposed 
Barnabas  and  his  followers  in  Alexandria  for  a  similar 
reason.  The  Epistle  is  certainly  written  before  the  de- 
struction of  the  Temple,  which  is  described  as  existing. 
How  early  it  was  composed  cannot  be  determined.  The 
peculiar  principles  of  the  Alexandrian  Church  harmo- 
nised with  those  of  the  Therapeuts. 

The  Christology  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

According  to  Philo's  writings,  '  the  eternal  Word  ' 
is  the  archtype  of  Humanity.  Man  is  created  in  the 
image  of  the  eternal  Word,  and  this  Divine  Word  is 
more  ancient  than  creation.  The  Word  is  not  only  a 
spiritual  power  which  God  uses  as  '  a  rudder,'  but  a 
celestial  being,  the  personal  '  Son  '  of  God,  the  heavenly 
Highpriest,  the  Angel-Messiah  of  the  Essenes  and 
Therapeuts.  It  is  only  through  the  mediation  of  angels 
and  therefore  of  the  Angel  of  God,  that  men  can  become 
'  sons  of  God.'  '  The  perfect  man  '  is  '  the  image  and 
the  form  '  of  the  Divine  Word,  he  belongs  to  '  the  better 
species  of  men,'  to  those  who  can  '  claim  the  Divine 
nature.'  These  are  created  by  the  first  of  the  angels, 
by  « the   firstborn     and   '  eldest  Son  '  of  God,   by  that 


'SUNDRY    FORMS   AND    DIVERS  MEASURES.'  245 

being  who  '  in  no  wise  departs  from  the  Divine  image/ 
by  the  ambassador  and  advocate  of  God,  who  is  '  neither 
God  nor  man,'  neither  uncreated  like  God  nor  created 
like  man,  '  something  on  the  border  between  uncreated 
and  perishable  nature.'  This  eternal  Word  or  eternal 
Messiah  Philo  calls  '  the  great  Highpriest  of  the  con- 
fession,' and  he  is,  according  to  Philo's  conception,  not 
a  man  of  the  past,  present,  or  future,  but  the  Angel  of 
God  who  transmits  the  Holy  Ghost.1  It  is  evident  that 
Philo's  conception  of  the  Messiah  is  the  Essenic  one  of 
the  Angel-Messiah,  with  which  we  have  connected  the 
Chris tology  of  Paul. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  begins  by  pointing  out 
the  connection  between 'the  Divine  revelations  in  the 
old  and  the  new  covenant.  '  God  having  in  times  past 
spoken  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets  in  sundry  forms 
and  in  divers  measures,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken 
unto  us  by  the  Son.'  Apollos  follows  Paul  by  designat- 
ing Christ,  the  Angel-Messiah,  as  participator  in  God's 
creation  of  the  world.  In  direct  connection  with  what 
is  said  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom  about  the  Wisdom  of 
God,  to  which  in  the  Gospel  of  Luke  words  of  Jesus 
have  been  attributed,  Apollos  describes  God's  Son  as 
'  the  refraction  of  his  glory  and  image  of  his  being,' 
who,  after  having  accomplished  the  purification  of  our 
sins,  '  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  majesty  on 
high,'  as  Stephen  had  first  described  him.  According 
to  the  Philonian  and  Essenian  doctrine  of  angels,  the 
Angel-Messiah  was  held  to  be  higher  than  all  angels,  and 
thus  the  Apocalypse  of  John  had  described  Christ  as  the 
first  of  seven  angels,  in  harmony  with  Eastern  symbo- 
lism. Then  Apollos  wrote  that  the  risen  Jesus  was  made 
or  became  '  so  much  better  than  the  angels,  as  he  hath 
by  inheritance  obtained  a  more  excellent  name  than 
they.'  The  learned  Alexandrian  and  Therapeut  in- 
structed by  Aquila  in  the  secret  tradition  of  the  Thera- 

1  De  Ling.  conf.  1  ;   De  Somn.  1 ;  see  p.  248. 


246  APOLLOS  AND   THE   ESSENES. 

peuts,  finds  sufficient  proof  for  his  assertion  in  the 
Alexandrian  version  of  the  2nd  Psalm,  which  he 
refers  not  to  Solomon's  or  another  king's  accession  to 
the  throne,  but  to  the  Angel-Messiah.  So  he  cites, like- 
wise after  the  Septuagint,  Nathan's  promise  to  David, 
that  Solomon,  his  son  in  the  flesh,  would  build  a  temple 
to  God,  who  will  stablish  his  throne  for  ever,  and  who 
is  recorded  to  have  said,  according  to  the  Greek 
text :  '  I  will  be  to  him  a  father,  and  he  shall  be  to 
me  a  son.' 

Referring  to  the  return  of  Jesus  which  by  Essenic 
Christians  was  then  considered  to  be  near  at  hand,Apollos 
cites  words  of  God,  nowhere  recorded  in  our  Scriptures, 
according  to  which  '  all  angels  shall  worship  him,'  as 
they  are  recorded  to  have  served  Jesus  on  the  occasion 
of  his  victory  over  Satan's  temptation  in  the  wilderness. 
Again,  whilst  God's  angels  are  described  as  spirits  (or 
winds)  and  his  ministers  flames  of  fire,  Apollos  ventures  to 
assert,  on  the  authority  of  the  Septuagint,  that  the  45th 
Psalm  does  not  refer  to  the  Davidic  kingdom  as  to  a 
'  throne  of  God,'  but  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Son,  to 
whom  the  Psalmist  is  assumed  to  have  given  the  attri- 
bute of  '  God  ' :  '  Thy  throne,  0  God,  is  for  ever  and 
ever.'  If  not  the  earliest,  at  all  events  the  latest,  real 
authority  for  this  application  of  the  Divine  attribute  is 
Philo,  who  calls  the  Son  of  God  *  the  second  God,'  in 
harmony  with  the  late  Targumistic  tradition,  which 
identifies  the  Word  or  Memra,  that  is,  the  Messiah,  with 
Jehovah.  We  are,  therefore,  not  astonished  that  Apollos, 
again  following  the  Greek  text,  changes  the  Hebrew 
Psalmist's  words,  which  probably  refer  to  the  king's 
being  anointed  above  his  fellows  by  God,  even  his  God. 
Instead  of  this,  Apollos  writes  :  '  therefore,  oh  God,  thy 
God  hath  anointed  thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above 
thy  fellows.'  Finally,  the  assertion  is  repeated  which  is 
contrary  to  the  102nd  Psalm,  that  not  God,  but  the 
Angel-Messiah,  has  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and 


'  THE    VEIL    OF    HIS    FLESH.'  i}47 

that  the  heavens  are  the  work  of  his  hands,  for  which 
reason,  though  they  perish  yet  he  remains,  and  is  the 
same,  and  his  years  shall  have  no  end.  In  this  case 
Apollos  can  connect  his  new  interpretation  with  the 
Hebrew  text  of  the  33rd  and  119th  Psalms,  in  which  it 
is  said  that  '  by  the  word  of  the  Lord  are  the  heavens 
made,'  and  '  for  ever,  0  Lord,  thy  word  is  (remains) 
settled  in  heaven.'  The  latter  Psalm  is  probably  from 
the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  whose  allies  were  the 
Assida3ans  or  Essenes,  so  that  the  Word  of  God  in  this 
passage  may  have  been  referred,  at  least  by  the  Initiated 
and  possibly  by  the  Psalmist,  to  a  celestial  being.  As 
such  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  and  in  the  Books  of 
Ecclesiasticus  and  of  Wisdom  the  Word  or  Wisdom 
of  God  is  designated.  Paul  had  also  implied  a  similar 
explanation  of  the  engrafted  Word  as  originating  in  a 
wisdom  which  descends  from  above. 

Apollos,  like  Stephen  and  Paul,  has  applied  to  Jesus 
Christ  the  Essenic  doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah,  and 
so  Apollos,  like  Paul,  connects  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  with  the  Divine  the  human  nature  of  Jesus. 
Although  the  expression  '  the  veil  of  his  flesh  '  might 
be    explained    in    a    superhuman  sense  by  those  who 
denied  Christ  in  the  flesh,  as  did  the  false  teachers  to 
which  the  First  Epistle  of  '  John  '  refers,  yet  Apollos  has 
as  clearly  defined  the  human  nature  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
Paul  has  done  in  one  passage  of  the  Eoman  Epistle. 
According  to  Apollos,  the  author  of  the  22nd  Psalm  has 
in  the  spirit  referred   to   the  incarnation  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah.     He  who  is  above  the  angels  is  '  not  ashamed ' 
to  call  men  his  '  brethren  '  and  his  children,  just  as  God 
is  declared  not  to  be  ashamed   to  be  called   the  God  of 
Israel's  fathers.     Because   the  Name  or  Spirit  of  God  is 
in  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  in   the  Angel-Messiah,  and 
through  him  also  in  mankind,  therefore  '  he  that  sancti- 
fieth,'  that  is  Christ,  '  and  they  who  are  sanctified,'  his 
brethren,  are  '  all  of  one.'     Thus  far  it  is  only  said  that 


248  APOLLOS   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

there  is  a  spiritual  union  between  the  sons  of  men  and 
the  celestial  Son  of  God.  But  Apollos,  as  if  not  satisfied 
with  Paul's  mysterious  reference  to  'the  likeness  of  sinful 
flesh,'  clearly  states  that  Christ  partook  of  the  same 
flesh  and  blood  as  his  children,  and  that  he  took  on  him 
'  not  the  nature  of  angels,'  but  '  the  seed  of  Abraham,' 
since  c  in  all  things  it  behoved  him  to  be  made  like  unto 
his  brethren.'  He  also  suffered  and  was  tempted  '  in  all 
points  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin ' ;  and  in  the  days 
of  his  flesh  he  '  offered  up  prayers  and  supplications 
with  strong  crying  and  tears  unto  Him  that  was  able  to 
save  him  from  death.'  It  was  because  of  his '  piety  '  that 
he  was  heard,  and  '  though  he  was  (a)  son  yet  learned 
he  obedience  by  that  which  he  suffered,  and  being, 
made  perfect  he  became  the  author  of  eternal  salvation 
unto  all  them  that  obey  him.'  Christ  Jesus  could  not 
have  '  come  to  do '  the  will  of  God  unless  he  had  been 
an  Angel. 

The  doctrine  about  Christ  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  is  the  Essenic  doctrine  about  the  Angel- 
Messiah  which  was  first  promulgated  by  Stephen  and 
Paul,  as  applied  to  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Highpriest  of  our  confession. 

'  The  firstborn,'  God's ;  Angel-Word  '  or  '  Archangelic 
Word,'  the  '  Angel  being  the  Word,'  His  '  most  ancient 
Word,'  Philo  calls  '  God,'  the  '  second  Deity,'  and  '  the 
Highpriest  of  the  confession,'  or  of  the  Creed.1  By  apply- 
ing to  Jesus  Christ  the  latter  title,  and  that  of  the  '  Word 
of  God,'  Apollos  confirms  his  evident  relation  to  the 
doctrinal  system  of  his  great  townsman.  The  gulf  be- 
tween the  spiritual  and  the  material  world  was  bridged 
over  by  God's  ambassador,  who  is  neither  God  nor 
man,    by   the   Angel-Messiah    of  the   Essenes.     Those 

1  Be  Conf.  ling.  14;  Be  Soinn.  i.  38,  30,  41  ;    Quis  est,  42;  Be  Mut. 
Nom.  13 ;  Be  Quest,  et  Sol.  02. 


HIGHPRIESTHOOD   OF    RECIIABITES.  249 

who,  unlike  Philo,  believed  in  the  incarnation  of  the 
first  of  seven  angels,  and  that  Jesus  was  the  incarnate 
Angel-Messiah  who  had  brought  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
mankind,  were  compelled  to  distinguish  from  the  Mosaic 
covenant  the  new  covenant  of  Christ  as  the  fulfilment 
of  the  covenant  promised  to  Abraham  and  his  seed. 
Paul  had  said  of  this  covenant  that  430  years  before 
the  Sinaitic  covenant  it  had  been  confirmed  '  of  God  in 
Christ.'  Christ  or  the  Angel  of  God  had  been  with 
Abraham  as  he  had  been  with  Moses  on  Sinai  and  with 
the  Church  in  the  wilderness.  Because  of  sin  the  second 
retrograde  '  weak  '  and  '  unprofitable '  law  on  Sinai, 
to  which  '  perfection  '  is  impossible,  was  promulgated 
through  the  mediation  of  angels,  probably  of  lower 
angels.  To  these  is  contrasted  the  Angel  of  God  who 
had  followed  the  Israelites,  Christ  who  had  been  made 
6  perfect '  in  eternity  or  for  ever,  and  who  had  become 
incarnate  and  brought  the  perfect  covenant  promised  to 
Abraham.  Hence  it  had  become  necessary  to  '  leave 
the  elementary  doctrine  of  Christ'  and  '  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  the  oracles  of  God.'  Therefore  a  new  High- 
priesthood  was  by  Apollos  contrasted  to  the  Aaronic 
Highpriesthood  ;  and  the  former,  like  the  new  covenant, 
was  traced  back  to  Abraham,  who  had  bowed  before  the 
non-Hebrew  Highpriest  Melchisedec. 

We  have  drawn  attention  to  the  distinction  between 
a  Hebrew  and  a  non-Hebrew  Highpriesthood,  which 
seems  to  have  been  recognised  before  the  Babylonian 
Captivity,  if  not  ever  since  the  time  of  Moses.  We  con- 
nected with  this  double  Highpriesthood  the  two  fines  of 
the  Aaronites  ;  that  of  Ithamar  represented  the  priesthood 
of  the  naturalised  strangers  in  Israel,  to  whom  the  Kenites 
of  Jethro  and  the  Rechabites  belonged,  with  which 
latter  the  Essenes  may  safely  be  connected.  We  also 
showed  that  the  110th  Psalm,  probably  written  for  the 
consecration  of  Joshua  the  Highpriest,  seems  to  refer  to 
this  Highpriesthood  for  ever  promised  to  Jonadab,  the 


250  APOLLOS   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

ancestor  of  the  Bechabites,  and  whom  the  Psalmist  calls 
his  Lord.  The  Lord  had  spoken  through  the  prophet 
Jeremiah  unto  the  Psalmist's  Lord  Jonadab,  to  whom 
the  promise  had  been  made  about  the  Highpriesthood 
for  ever  among  the  sons  of  Eechab.  This  eternal  High- 
priesthood  among  the  strangers  or  non-Hebrews  in 
Israel  the  Psalmist  connects  with  the  Highpriesthood  of 
the  non-Hebrew  Melchisedec,  with  '  the  order  of  Mel- 
chisedec' 

Whether  the  110th  Psalm  had  originally  referred 
to  and  possibly  was  composed  by  Joshua,  or  whether 
it  was  composed  by  David,  a  descendant  from  non- 
Hebrews,  to  whom  the  superscription  refers  the  same 
in  the  text  transmitted  to  us,  in  either  case  the  Psalm 
may  be  connected  with  the  Bechabite  Highpriesthood 
promised  by  Jeremiah  to  the  sons  of  Jonadab  or  of 
Eechab,  the  strangers  in  Israel.  The  Essenes,  whom 
we  cannot  disconnect  from  the  Bechabites,  would  re- 
gard this  promise  as  made  to  their  order,  and  they 
would  identify  this  eternal  Highpriesthood  with  the 
Angel-Messiah  whom  they  expected,  whom  Philo  had 
called,  and  Apollos  after  him,  'the  great  Highpriest  of 
our  confession.'  Apollos  fully  explains  how  the  celes- 
tial Highpriesthood  promised  by  the  words  of  God 
recorded  in  the  110th  Psalm,  refers  to  Jesus,  who,  like 
David,  was  descended  from  non-Hebrews. 

The  incarnate  Angel-Highpriest  and  celestial  son 
of  God,  'Jesus,  the  Son*of  God,'  is  'passed  through 
the  heavens,'  both  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end 
of  his  'days  in  the  flesh,'  or  as  Paul  had  said,  'he 
that  descended  is  the  same  that  ascended.'  Referring 
the  110th  Psalm  to  Jesus,  Apollos  considers  himself 
authorised  to  say,  that  Jesus  was  '  called '  or  addressed 
by  God  as  'a  Highpriest  after  the  order  of  Melchisedec' 
Thus  a  hope  is  set  before  us,  '  which  we  have  as  an 
anchor  of  the  soul,  both  sure  and  stedfast,  and  entering 
into  the  part  within  the  veil,  whither  as  forerunner  on 


MELCHISEDEC   THE    ANGEL-MESSIAH.  251 

our  behalf  Jesus  entered,  having  become  an  Highpriest 
for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchisedec'     In  the  He- 
brew language,  which  was   that  of  Canaan,  the  name 
Melchisedec  means 'King  of  Eighteousness,'  and  Salem 
or  Shalem  means  '  peace  '  or  '  peaceful,'  and  probably 
here  refers  to  Jerusalem.     Not  only  the  references  to 
Jerusalem,  to  righteousness  and  peace,  add  force  to  the 
explanation  of  Melchisedec  as  type  of  Jesus  the  incar- 
nate Angel-Highpriest,  but  the  omission  of  Melchisedec's 
descent,  that  is,  of  his  genealogy,  would   suggest  the 
mystery  of  the  incarnation  of  Christ  Jesus.     Because 
neither  the  father  nor  the  mother  nor  the  genealogy  of 
Melchisedec  is  referred  to  in  Genesis,  Apollos  finds  it 
easy  to  interpret  the  passage  figuratively,  in  harmony 
with  Essenic  custom,  to  give  it  a  deeper  meaning  than 
that   conveyed    by  the  literal   sense,    and    to   suggest 
mysteriously  that  the  King  of  Jerusalem,  who,  in  com- 
pany with  the  King  of  Sodom,  went  to  meet  victorious 
Abraham,  had  in  fact  neither  father  nor  mother  nor 
genealogy,  '  and  neither  beginning  of  days  nor  end  of 
life,  but  (being)  like  unto  the  Son  of  God,  he  abideth 
a  priest  for  ever.' 

Apollos  therefore  clearly  implies  that  Melchisedec 
was  not  only  a  type,  but  an  earlier  incarnation  of  the 
Angel  of  God,  of  the  Word  of  God  whom  Philo  had 
designated  as  '  neither  God  nor  man,'  and  '  the  great 
Highpriest.'  Jesus  is  the  full  manifestation  of  the 
celestial  Highpriest.  Unlike  the  sons  of  Levi,  who  are 
not  suffered  to  continue  priests  by  reason  of  death,  the 
celestial  Highpriest,  '  because  he  continueth  for  ever, 
hath  his  priesthood  unchangeable,'  or  imperishable. 
Instead  of  human  Highpriests,  '  which  have  infirmity,' 
Jesus,  as  '  the  Highpriest  of  our  confession,'  is  '  the  Son 
made  perfect  in  eternity.'  Apollos  asserts,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  interpretation  of  the  110th  Psalm,  that 
this  has  been  declared  by  the  Word  of  God's  oath, 
<  after  the  law,'   or,  as   thus  implied,   in   the   time   of 


252  APOLLOS   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

David,    to   whom   the    composition    of   that   Psalm   is 
assigned. 

'  If  perfection  were  (possible)  by  the  Levitical 
priesthood  (for  on  the  ground  of  it  hath  the  people 
received  the  law)  what  further  need  was  there  that  a 
different  priest  should  rise  after  the  order  of  Melchisedec, 
and  that  he  should  be  called  not  after  the  order  of 
Aaron  ?  For  where  the  priesthood  is  changed,  there  is 
made  of  necessity  a  change  of  the  law  also.  For  he  in 
reference  to  whom  these  things  are  spoken  belonged  to 
a  different  tribe,  of  which  no  man  hath  ever  given 
attendance  at  the  altar.  For  it  is  evident  that  our 
Lord  sprang  out  of  Judah,  of  (for)  which  tribe  Moses 
spake  nothing  concerning  the  priests,'  that  is,  concern-. 
ing  those  priests  which  might  be  taken  from  Judah  for 
the  Highpriesthood. 

This  passage  confirms  the  connection  of  the  High- 
priesthood  of  Melchisedec  and  of  Jesus,  the  non- 
Hebrews,  with  the  Aaronic  line  of  Ithamar,  so  called 
after  Thamar,  the  non-Hebrew.  For  the  line  of  Itha- 
mar had  its  possessions  exclusively  in  Judah,  where 
the  Kenites  or  Eechabites  had  amalgamated  with 
Hebrews,  and  during  the  war  between  Saul  of  Benjamin 
and  David  of  Judah  the  line  of  Ithamar,  represented  by 
Abiathar,  sided  with  David,  the  line  of  Eleazar,  repre- 
sented by  Zacloc,  with  Saul.  Only  in  so  far  could 
Apollos  assert  that  Moses  spoke  nothing  concerning  the 
priests  which  might  be  taken  from  Judah  for  the  High- 
priesthood,  inasmuch  as,  in  fact,  the  Scriptures,  which 
twice  give  the  genealogy  of  the  line  of  Eleazar,  do  not 
give  the  genealogy  of  the  line  of  Ithamar.  But  Apollos 
was  wrong  in  his  assertion,  for  Eli  and  his  successors  did 
give  '  attendance  at  the  altar,'  though  they  belonged  to 
the  junior  Aaronic  line,  being  priests  of  Judah  as  High- 
priests  of  the  line  of  Ithamar.  The  promised  eternal 
Highpriesthood  of  Eechabites  in  Judah,  Ezechiel's 
uncircumcised    Highpriests,    to   which   Joshua   or   his 


THE   AARONITES   OVER   HEBREWS   AND   STRANGERS.      253 

antagonist  in  the  sanctuary  may  have  belonged,  pro- 
bably were  of  the  line  of  Ithamar.  That  youngest 
surviving  son  of  Aaron  may  by  Moses  have  been  set 
over  the  Kenites  of  Jethro,  and  Ithamar's  successors  in 
office  may  have  represented  the  Highpriestly  order  of 
the  uncircumcised  stranger  in  Israel. 

This  Highpriestly  order  of  non-Hebrews  in  Israel, 
of  Eechabites  and  Essenes,  we  now  venture  to  connect 
with  the  order  of  Melchisedec.  Since  the  ethnic 
dualism  in  Israel,  represented  by  Hebrews  and  natu- 
ralised strangers  within  the  gate,  had  probably  existed 
already  in  the  time  of  Abraham,  it  is  reasonable  to 
assume  that  Moses  recognised  this  dualism  when  he  led 
the  '  mixed  multitude  '  out  of  Egypt.  If  so,  to  the  fusion 
of  Hebrews  and  non-Hebrews,  such  as  was  exemplified 
by  the  Kenites  settling  with  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  in- 
dependent Elohistic  and  Jehovistic  narratives  in  the 
Mosaic  Scriptures  may  owe  their  origin,  as  also  the  two 
chiefs  of  tribal  tradition.  According  to  this  assump- 
tion, the  lawgiver  placed  the  two  sons  of  Aaron  respec- 
tively over  the  Hebrew  and  the  non-Hebrew  part  of  the 
community. 

From  this  it  would  not  follow  that  all  the  members 
of  Highpriestly  families  were  descended  from  the  two 
sons  of  Aaron.  For,  at  all  events,  up  to  the  time  of 
the  Exodus  there  is  no  trace  in  the  Mosaic  Scriptures  of 
a  priestly  tribe  or  hereditary  priesthood,  but  the  eldest 
son  inherited  from  his  father  the  priestly  office.  Thus 
the  men  who  offered  sacrifices  in  the  time  of  Moses  are 
called  '  young  men  from  the  children  of  Israel,'  and 
Israel  was  '  a  kingdom  of  priests  and  a  holy  people.' 
The  Israelites  had  not  deputed  their  priestly  duty  to 
representatives,  and  still  less  had  given  it  up  in  favour 
of  a  hereditary  caste,  such  as  the  Levites  are  described 
in  the  later  Scriptures,  called  after  Moses.  Contrary  to 
these  later  regulations,  the  sons  of  David  are  called 
priests,  or  Cohenim,  literally,  those  who  approach  God, 


254  APOLLOS   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

an  expression  which  first  occurs  in  the  Bible  in  connec- 
tion with  the  non-Hebrew  priesthood  of  Melchisedec 
and  Jethro.  By  the  side  of  a  Hebrew  Levitical  priest- 
hood a  non-Levitical  one  of  the  strangers  in  Israel  seems 
to  have  existed,  since  the  prophets  Jeremiah  and  Ezechiel, 
and  probably  also  the  110th  Psalm,  refer  to  it.  Per- 
haps it  is  not  a  chance-coincidence  that  the  name 
of  Levi's  eldest  son,  Gerson,  refers  to  Ger  the  stranger. 
It  becomes  increasingly  probable  that  Melchisedec, 
Jethro,  Eli,  and  Joshua  belonged  to  the  order  of  the 
stranger  in  Israel,  and  that  the  same  was  presided  over 
by  the  so-called  sons  of  Ithamar  since  the  time  of 
Moses. 

Upon  such  possibly  historical  basis  Apollos  has  by 
a  free  allegorising  of  the  texts  built  up  his  theory  of 
the  celestial  Highpriesthood  of  Jesus,  the  Angel- 
Messiah.  If  James  the  brother  of  Jesus  really  had  the 
privilege  of  entering  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy  with  the 
golden  plate  of  the  Aaronites  on  his  forehead,  the 
two  brothers  of  Davidic  or  non-Hebrew  descent  may 
have  belonged,  as  we  shall  suggest,  to  one  of  the  High- 
priestly  families  of  the  strangers  in  Israel,  to  the  so- 
called  sons  of  Ithamar.  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene,  by 
his  mother  of  Aaronite  descent,  may  have  belonged  to 
the  sons  of  Zadoc,  which  Highpriest  was  of  the  elder 
Aaronic  line  of  Eleazar,  after  whom  the  Sadclucees  seem 
to  have  been  called,  who  with  the  Essenes  defended  the 
rigid  maintenance  of  the  law. 

Jesus  opposed  some  doctrinal  principles  of  John  the 
Baptist ;  and  the  Sadducees,  probably  allied  with  the 
line  of  Eleazar,  persecuted  Jesus.  His  opposition  to 
the  Temple-services  was  all  the  more  dangerous  if  he 
and  his  brother  James  stood  by  birth  in  connection  with 
the  rival  line  of  Ithamar.  This  connection,  though  not 
improbable,  cannot  be  insisted  upon.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
the  theory  of  the  celestial  and  eternal  Highpriesthood 
of  Jesus  Christ  stands  and  falls  with  the  theory  of  an 


THE   TABERNACLE   A    PARABLE.  255 

Angel-Messiah.  This  theory  was  first  applied  to  Jesus 
by  Stejmen  the  Hellenist,  probably  of  Alexandria,  where 
the  Therapeuts  had  their  settlements,  and  who  certainly 
was  an  Essene  or  Therapeut,  since  no  other  Jews  can 
be  proved  to  have  expected  an  Angel-Messiah.  Paul 
became  a  convert  to  the  Essenic  doctrines  of  Stephen, 
and  what  Paul  planted  Apollos  has  watered. 

We  are  therefore  not  surprised  that  Apollos  in  his 
Epistle  has  connected  with  the  celestial  Highpriesthood 
of  Jesus  the  Paulinic  doctrine  about  the  atonement, 
which  is  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  Essenic 
and  Paulinic  doctrine  that  God's  Spirit  was  not  in  fallen 
humanity  until  the  Angel-Messiah  restored  it.  Apollos 
also  regards  the  bloody  sacrifices  as  types  of  the 
bloody  sacrifice  of  Christ. 

'  The  tabernacle  is  a  parable,'  or  rather  a  type  or 
symbol,  '  for  the  time  now  present,  according  to  which 
are  offered  both  gifts  and  sacrifices  having  no  power  to 
perfect  in  conscience,'  or,  '  according  to  conscience,  him 
that  attendeth  to  the  service  of  God.'  These  ordinances 
were  imposed  '  until  the  time  of  reformation.'  For  this 
reformation  the  Essenes  had  been  preparing  mankind, 
looking  to  the  coming  of  the  Angel-Messiah  who  should 
appear,  and  now  had  appeared  as  '  Highpriest  of  the 
good  things  to  come.'  As  the  Highpriest  had  to  enter 
once  every  year  into  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy,1  so  Jesus 
'  entered  once  for  all  into  the  holy  place,  and  obtained 
eternal  redemption  for  us,'  by  entering  '  through  the 
greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle,  not  made  with 
hands,  that  is  to  say,  not  of  this  creation,  nor  yet  through 
the  blood  of  goats  and  calves,  but  through  his  own 
blood.  For  if  the  blood  of  goats  and  bulls,  and  ashes 
of  an  heifer  sprinkling  the  defiled,  sanctifieth  to  the 
purity  of  the  flesh,  how  much  more  shall  the   blood   of 

1  Possibly  on  the  shortest  or  the  longest  day  of  the  year,  when  the  sun, 
symbol  of  Divine  presence,  may  have  thrown  a  ray  of  light  on  the  tabernacle, 
as  it  throws  a  shadow  on  the  altar  at  Stonehenge. 


256  APOLLOS   AND   THE   ESSEXES. 

Christ,  who  through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  himself 
without  fault  to  God,  purge  our  consciences  from  dead 
works  to  serve  the  living  God  ?  '  .  .  .  'It  was 
therefore  necessary  that  the  symbol  of  the  heavenly 
(sanctuary)  should  be  purified  with  such  (sacrifices), 
but  the  heavenly  (sanctuary)  itself  with  better  sacri- 
fices than  (were)  those.  For  Christ  entered  not  into  a 
holy  place  made  with  hands,  the  counterfeit  of  the  true, 
but  into  heaven  itself,  now  to  appear  before  the  face  of 
God  for  us  ;  nor  yet  that  he  may  offer  himself  often, 
as  the  Highpriest  enter eth  into  the  holy  place  every 
year  with  blood  not  his  own  ;  for  then  it  would  have 
been  necessary  for  him  to  have  suffered  oftentimes  since 
the  foundation  of  the  world  ;  but  now  once  at  the  end 
of  the  world  hath  he  appeared  for  the  putting  away  of 
sin  by  his  sacrifice.  And  as  it  is  appointed  unto  men 
once  to  die,  but  after  that  the  judgment,  so  also  Christ 
was  sacrificed  once,  to  take  away  the  sins  of  many,  and 
he  shall  appear  a  second  time  without  sin  to  them  that 
wait  for  him  unto  salvation.' 

Apollos  refers  to  the  bloody  sacrifices  not  having 
6  ceased  to  be  offered '  in  the  still  existing  Temple,  though 
they  had  never  been  offered  by  the  Essenes,  and  probably 
by  all  those  who,  like  Jesus,  attended  only  the  service  in 
the  Synagogue.  The  Essenes  claimed  to  have  rightly 
foreseen  that  the  Angel-Messiah  would  sanction  the  abo- 
lition of  the  bloody  sacrifices,  which  were  ordered  by  the 
law,  and  yet  cannot  '  take  away  sins,'  as  Apollos  declares. 
Apollos  interprets  the  Greek  text  of  the  40th  Psalm 
as  containing  a  prophecy  of  the  promised  Messiah's 
protest  against  the  bloody  sacrifices.  '  Burnt  offering 
and  sin-offering  hast  thou  not  required,'  said  David  ; 
instead  of  such  a  written  commandment,  God  is  said  to 
have  given  him  perforated  ears  or  ;  open  ears  '  to  hear 
the  spiritual  commandments  of  God.  Thus  he  was  ena- 
bled to  say  :  '  Lo,  I  have  come, 'or  '  here  I  am  .  .  to 
do  Thy  will,  0  God,  have  I  desired,  as  it  is  written  for 


TYPICAL   SACRIFICES   FULFILLED.  257 

me  in  the  volume  of  the  book  ;  and  thy  law  is  within 
my  heart.'  These  words  of  David  are  by  Apollos 
explained,  in  harmony  with  the  Septuagint,  to  refer  to 
Messiah's  coming  '  into  the  world,'  to  the  incarnation  of 
the  Angel,  for  whom  God  had  'prepared  a  body.' 

With  this  altered  text  Paul's  saying  may  be  con- 
nected, that  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  Only  as  an  Angel  become  incarnate  in  a 
body  especially  prepared  by  God,  as  an  Angel  in  whom 
is  the  '  Name  '  or  Spirit  of  God,  could  the  Messiah  come 
to  do  the  will  of  God,  that  is,  to  take  away  the  bloody 
sacrifices  that  he  may  establish  the  spiritual  or  self- 
sacrifice.  It  is  by  this  human  body  exceptionally  pre- 
pared by  God  for  the  Angel-Messiah  ;  it  is  '  through  the 
offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ,'  in  pursuance  of 
his  self-sacrifice,  and  of  God's  will  done,  that  '  we  have 
been  sanctified  once  for  all.'  By  this  '  one  offering  he 
hath  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  being  sanctified.' 
Thus  the  spiritual  covenant  promised  by  Jeremiah  has 
been  fulfilled  :  God's  law  is  written  in  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  men  ;  God  will  no  more  remember  their  sins 
and  iniquities,  but  will  abolish  all  '  offering  for  sin,'  for 
Christ  is  '  the  fulfilment  of  the  law.' 

The  basis  for  this  most  eloquent  and  devout  scheme 
of  Jesus  Christ's  celestial  Highpriesthoocl,  and  his  sacri- 
ficial, atoning,  and  vicarious  death,  as  presented  to  us 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  whether  written  by 
Apollos,  Barnabas,  or  by  Paul,  is  not  the  body  of  the 
Scriptures  or  any  part  of  them,  but  their  systematic 
figurative  interpretation.  It  was  invented  by  the  Essenic 
order  at  different  times,  and  partly  during  the  hundred  and 
fifty  years  before  the  Christian  era,  when  the  Essenic4 
order  can  be  proved  to  have  existed.  This  Essenic 
interpretation  of  Scripture  had  been  introduced  into 
non-orthodox  Judaism  for  the  purpose  of  connecting 
with  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms  the  Eastern 
and  Essenic  conception  of  an  Angel-Messiah.     Of  this 

s 


258  APOLLO*    AXD   THE    ESSENES. 

doctrine  there  is  not  a  trace  either  in  any  of  the 
Scriptures  possibly  composed  before  the  deportation  to 
Babylon,  or  in  the  first  three  Gospels.  The  very  ancient 
and  Eastern  doctrine  of  an  Angel-Messiah,  (the  first  of 
seven  Angels  ?)  had  been  applied  to  Gautama-Buddha, 
and  so  it  was  applied  -to  Jesus  Christ  by  the  Essenes 
of  Egypt  and  of  Palestine,  who  introduced  this  new 
Messianic  doctrine  into  Essenic  Judaism  and  Essenic 
Christianity.  But  although  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  through  the  instrumentality  of  Magi  and  of 
Kenites  or  Eechabites,  of  Parthians,  Pythagoreans, 
and  Essenes,  has  been  transplanted  from  the  land  of 
Buddha  and  countries  to  which  Buddhism  had  spread, 
to  the  land  promised  to  the  seed  of  Abraham,  yet  no 
attempt  was  made  in  the  East  to  develop  from  the  Veda 
a  theory  of  Buddha's  sacrificial  death.  Nor  do  Bud- 
dhistic Scriptures  ever  refer  to  or  oppose  such  a  doc- 
trine as  prevailing  among  Christians.  This  is  all  the 
more  remarkable  since  vicarious  sin-removing  and  re- 
conciling human  sacrifices  at  the  time  of  the  spring- 
equinox,  when  the  sun  passes  over  the  equinoctial 
point,  at  the  Passover,  can  be  traced  back  in  East  and 
West  to  pre-Abrahamitic  times. 

Conclusion. 

We  regard  as  proved,  what  Eusebius  considered 
'highly  probable,'  the  direct  connection  of  Paulinic 
writings,  especially  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  with 
Scriptures  of  the  Therapeutic  order.  The  same  may 
be  asserted  witli  regard  to  the  Septuagint  and  the 
writings  of  Philo,  although  here  the  new  doctrine  of  the 
Angel-Messiah  was  only  gradually  revealed,  and  no  ex- 
pectation of  his  incarnation  was  referred  to.  Following 
in  the  footsteps  of  Stephen  and  Paul,  the  writer  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  or  Alexandrians,  almost  cer- 
tainly Apollos,    applies    the  Oriental   doctrine   of  the 


MORE    PERFECT    MESSIANIC    INSTRUCTION.  259 

Angel-Messiah  to  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  end  of  the  law 
and  the  bringer  of  a  new  dispensation.  The  non- 
Palestinian  Essenes  of  Egypt  and  other  countries  in- 
sisted on  their  liberty  to  discard  such  of  the  injunctions 
of  the  Mosaic  law  as  were  derived  from  its  literal  inter- 
pretation. "  Apollos  had  been  c  instructed  in  the  way  of 
the  Lord  '  by  disciples  of  John,  and,  like  the  latter,  he 
looked  forward  to  Him  who  should  come  to  baptize 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  the  Angel-Messiah.  Like  John 
the  Baptist  or  Essene,  and  like  Philo,  Apollos  did  not 
at  first  believe  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ.  But  since 
Aquila  and  Priscilla  had  taught  him  '  the  way  of  God 
more  accurately '  than  the  disciples  of  John  had  done, 
he  confuted  in  public  the  Jews  and  Essenes,  i  showing 
by  the  Scriptures  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ.' 

In  like  manner  Apollos,  by  his  Epistle  to  the  Jewish- 
Christian  part  of  the  Alexandrian  Churcr ,  confuted  the 
Jews  who  were  '  dull  of  understanding  '  things  '  difficult 
of  interpretation.'  They  ought  to  have  been  '  long  ago 
teachers,'  but  they  '  again  have  need  '  to  be  taught  '  the 
first  principles  of  the  oracles  of  God.'  They  '  have  need 
of  milk,  not  of  solid  food,'  they  are  '  unskilled  '  or  6  with- 
out experience  '  in  the  words  '  of  righteousness '  ;  they 
are  '  babes,'  or,  as  Paul  had  said,  4  babes  in  Christ,'  that 
is,  not  spiritual  but  carnal  men.  The  readers  of  this 
Epistle  were  in  the  position  in  which  Apollos  had  been 
when  '  he  knew  only  the  baptism  of  John,'  and  when 
he  had  probably  not  even  heard  that  there  is  a  Holy 
Ghost.  But  having  learnt  the  way  of  God  more  per- 
fectly, Apollos  urges  in  this  Epistle,  the  Hebrews  of 
Alexandria  to  '  leave  the  elementary  doctrines  of  Christ ' 
and  to  '  turn  to  perfection.'  He  teaches,  that  for  this 
perfection  the  law,  in  its  literal  interpretation,  had  done 
6  nothing,'  that  with  the  new  faith  the  law  has  '  nothing 
to  do,'  that  it  is  the  faith  of  which  Paul  had  said  that  it 
should  be  revealed  after  the  law,  as  the  end  of  the  law. 

To  learn  this   difficult  interpretation  of  the   Scrip- 

s  2 


260  APOLLOS  AND  THE  ESSENES. 

tures,  to  see  that  they  point  to  the  eternal  and  angelic 
Word  of  God,  to  the  eldest  Son  of  God,  and  High- 
priest  of  our  confession,  as  Philo  had  already  shown, 
and,  beyond  this,  to  understand  and  believe  that  this 
celestial  Messiah  or  '  man  from  heaven,'  the  Angel  who 
followed  the  Israelites,  as  Paul  said,  has  become  incar- 
nate in  Jesus  Christ,  the  Hebrews  of  Alexandria  must 
be  taught  the  more  perfect  doctrine  of  Christ,  the 
deeper  knowledge,  the  gnosis.  Did  the  Apostle  James 
acknowledge  this  interpretation  of  the  law  of  Moses  ? 


261 


CHAPTEE  IX. 


JAMES     AND     THE     ESSENES. 


The  Problem — The  Herodians  and  the  Essenes— The  descent  of  James- 
James  the  Nazarite  and  Highpriest— The  Epistle  of  James. 

The  Problem. 

The  history  of  James,  '  the  brother  of  the  Lord,'  is 
enveloped  in  darkness.  When,  and  under  what  cir- 
cumstances '  James,  the  servant  of  God  and  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,'  was  placed  over  the  Apostles  at  Jeru- 
salem ;  in  what  sense  he  was  called  the  brother  of  Jesus  ; 
whether  it  is  probable  that  he  was  a  Nazarite,  and  that 
he  could  enter  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy  ;  and  finally,  what 
causes  led  to  his  martyrdom,  when  a  Eechabite  priest 
was  standing  at  his  side,  these  are  generally  acknow- 
ledged problems.  New  difficulties  seem 'at  first  sight  to 
arise  from  the  preceding  arguments,  which  tend  to  show 
that  Jesus  opposed  the  principal  doctrines  of  the  Essenes, 
with  whom  the  Eechabites  and  the  institution  of  the 
Nazarite  must  be  connected.  Yet  it  may  be  possible 
from  the  Essenic  stand-point  to  throw  some  light  on  the 
life  of  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  so  as  not  to  increase, 
but  to  diminish,  the  difficulties  which  surround  it. 


The  Herodians  and  the  Essenes. 

The  family  of  the  Herods  from  Idumaea  was  descen- 
ded from  the  Ed  omites,  therefore  from  those  non-Israelites 
who  joined  the  armies  of  Nebucadnezar  when  he  be- 
sieged Jerusalem,  and  who,  during  the  Captivity,  had 


262  JAMES   AND    THE    ESSENES. 

spread  westwards  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  valley  of 
Arabah,  and  had  even  got  possession  of  Hebron.  Then 
Edom  proper  or  Mount  Seir,  of  which  country,  Esau's 
heritage,  the  Hebrews  never  possessed  a  foot-breadth 
up  to  the  time  of  Joshua,  was  taken  possession  of  by 
the  Nabathasans,  descendants  from  Nabaioth,  the  first- 
born of  Ishmael,  who  was  connected  with  Esau,  in- 
habited Edom,  and  married  a  daughter  of  Ishmael.  The 
Nabathaeans  of  Arabia  Petrasa  seem  to  have  been  con- 
nected with  the  Nabat  of  Mesopotamia,  also  called 
Cuthaeans,  and  to  have  belonged  to  the  Medo-Chaldaean 
race,  to  the  Casdim  or  conquerors,  to  the  Medes  of 
Berosus,  who  conquered  Babylon  in  B.C.  2458.  These 
Medes  may  already  then  have  introduced  Magian  asceti- 
cism into  Mesopotamia,  and  the  combination  of  non- 
Iranian  asceticism,  and  Iranian  dualism,  which  the 
Essenes  or  Assidaeans  introduced  into  Judaism  may  be 
explained  by  the  highly  probable  ethnic  connection  of 
the  Essenes  with  the  Casdim,  later  Chaldaeans  (Nabat  ?) 
of  Mesopotamia.1  This  hypothesis  is  confirmed  by  the 
connection  of  the  Essenic  prophet  Elkesai  with  the 
Mesopotamian  Sabians,  Mendaeans,  or  '  disciples  of 
John,'  of  the  Baptist  or  bather,  the  Ashai,  Essai,  or 
Essene. 

The  Herocls  came  from  a  country  which  was  alter- 
nately occupied  by  Edomites  and  Nabathasans ;  the 
former  of  whom  had  become  possessed  during  the 
Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  country  to  the  west  of  the 

1  The  Essenes,  Kenites,  or  Rechabites,  who  came  from,  and  whose 
*  father '  was  liainath,  may  be  connected  with  the  Jehovistic  and  Iranian 
non-Israelites,  apparently  connected  with  Hamath  by  Amos,  who  wrote,  about 
B.C.  790,  that  in  Juda  and  Samaria  they  would  burn  the  bodies  of  Israelites, 
as  the  inhabitants  of  Jabesh-Gilead  had  done  with  the  bodies  of  Saul  and 
his  son,  whereupon  thoy  fasted  seven  days.  (Amos  vi.  1-14;  1  Sam.  xxxi. 
12,  13).  Already  the  name  of  the  city^,  Rechoboth,  which  Ashur  (Nimrod) 
built,  that  is  one  of  the  four  cities  which  formed  Nineveh,  must  be  connected 
with  Rechab,  and  an  aboriginal  Hamath  '  the  great,'  in  Mesopotamia, 
(another  name  for  Nineveh  the  great  ?)  is  possible,  after  which  Hamath  on 
the  Orontes  was  called.     {Einheit  der  Reliyionen,  i.  217  f.) 


THE    HERODS   AND   THE    MACCABEES.  203 

Dead  Sea,  where  the  settlements  of  the  Essenes  were, 
where  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene  was  born,  and  where  he 
seems  to  have  first  baptized.  The  Nabathseans  who 
took  the  place  of  the  Edomites  in  the  country  of  the 
Herods  to  the  east  of  the  Dead  Sea,  came  from  Meso- 
potamia, with  which  country  we  tried  to  connect  the 
Essenes.  The  Nabathaeans  were  in  possession  of  Petra 
at  least  300  years  before  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era,  and  thus  about  150  years  before  the  exis- 
tence of  the  Essenic  order  is  by  Josephus  referred  to. 
Some  of  the  Nabathaaan  princes  bore  the  name  Aretas, 
and  this  was  the  name  of  the  father-in-law  of  Herod 
Antipas,  who  possessed  Damascus  at  the  time  of  Paul's 
conversion  to  the  Essenic  faith. 

The   probability    of  a    sort    of  connection    of  the 

Herods  with  the  Essenes  is  strengthened  by  the  latter 

having  been,  as  Assidaaans,  the  allies  of  the  Maccabees, 

with  whom  the  Herods  were  connected  by  Herod   the 

Great's  wife  Mariamne.     The   name  Hasmon,   ancestor 

of  the  Hasmonasans  or  Maccabees,  points  to  the  city  of 

Hashnionah,  a  station  of  the  Israelites  near  Mount  Hor, 

which   was    on  the   boundary  line  of  Edom.     As  the 

Herods   were   connected    with    the    land  of   John   the 

Baptist's  or   the   Essene's   birth   and    first    activity,    so 

Chasmon,  like  John's  father  Zacharias,  of  the  priestly 

course    of  Abijah  or  Abia,    belonged   to  the  Aaronic 

line,  since  according  to  Josephus  a  citizen  of  Jerusalem 

and  a  priest  4  of  the  sons  of  Joarib.'    The  Idumaaans  were 

conquered  and  converted  to  Judaism  by  the  Maccabiean 

John  Hyrcanus  in  B.C.  130,  according  to  Josephus,  who 

states  that  since  that  time  they  regarded  Jerusalem  as 

their  mother-city,  and  claimed  for  themselves  the  name 

of  Jews.     Considering  the  probable  ethnical  connection 

between  Essenes  and  Maccabees,  whose  allies  the  Assi- 

dieans  were  earlier  than  B.C.   143,   it  may  be   assumed 

that  the  Essenes  and  Idumaaans  were  a  cognate  race. 

According  to  later  Jewish  tradition,  Herod  the  Great 


264  JAMES    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

was  successively  the  servant  of  the  Hasmonasans  and 
the  Romans.1  The  probability  gains  ground  that  the 
Herodians  were  connected  with  theEssenes  or  Assidasans, 
the  allies  of  the  Maccabees,  for  political  reasons,  if  not 
also  for  reasons  of  descent. 

The  Herods  aimed  at  independence  from  the  Romans 
as  well  as  from  the  Jews.  To  them  religion  was  only 
a  policy,  and  they  furthered  the  establishment  of  a 
universalist  religion  of  the  Hellenistic  (Therapeutic) 
type,  such  as  the  Maccabees  and  the  Gentile-excluding 
Essenes  of  Palestine  had  tried  to  prevent  by  a  zealous 
adherence  to  the  law.  But  the  son  of  a  Maccabgean 
mother,  Herod  Agrippa  I.,  forsook  the  idolatry  of  his 
father,  and  was  a  strict  observer  of  the  law.  Thus 
the  Essenes  of  Judaaa  could  look  up  to  him,  and  they 
would  support  him  in  his  determine^  policy  against 
those  universalist  Hellenists,  some  of  whom  were  The- 
rapeuts,  like  Stephen  and  Paul.  These  particularist 
Essenes  may  have  formed  the  party  of  the  Herodians, 
which  is  not  mentioned  by  Luke  or  by  Josephus,  but 
which  in  the  Apostolic  age  was,  like  the  Essenes,  distin- 
guished from  the  Sadducean  and  Pharisaic  party.  The 
Herodians  joined  the  Pharisees  in  questioning  Jesus 
whether  it  was  right  to  pay  tribute  to  Cassar,  and  Jesus 
is  recorded  to  have  warned  his  hearers  against  the 
leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  of  Herod. 

It  may  be  asserted  that  the  zealot  Herod  Agrippa  I., 
of  half-Maccaba3an  descent,  who  encouraged  Jews  to 
take  the  Nazarite  vow,  was  friendly  to  those  Essenes 
who  adhered  to  the  law  and  who  rejected  the  Gentiles 
without  the  law,  but  that  he  persecuted  the  univer- 
salist Essenes  or  Therapeuts,  to  whom  Stephen  and 
Paul  belonged.  It  was  during  the  reign  of  Herod 
Agrippa,  probably  in  the  first  year  of  his  terrorism  and 
of  the  persecution  which  arose  because  of  Stephen,  that 
James  '  the  brother  of  the  Lord  '  was  placed  above  the 

1  Jost,  Geschichte  des  Judenthums,  319. 


THE    FAMILY    OF    JOSEPH    AND    MARY.  265 

Apostles  at  Jerusalem.  It  is  almost  certain  that  this 
elevation  took  place  in  the  year  41,  on  the  death  of 
James  the  brother! of  Zebeclee,  whom  Agrippa  had 
caused  to  be  beheaded,  and  when  Peter  was  imprisoned. 
For  when  the  latter,  after  his  miraculous  deliverance, 
left  in  the  night  Jerusalem  '  for  another  place '  (Rome?), 
Peter  sent  a  message  to  '  James  and  the  brethren.' 

The  Descent  of  James. 

Paul  testifies  that  three  years  after  his  conversion 
he  saw  at  Jerusalem  James  '  the  brother  of  the  Lord.' 
Only  in  two  passages  the  word  '  brother '  is  in  the  Bible 
used  in  its  wider  sense.  Abraham  the  Hebrew  and 
Lot  the  Moabite  are  called  brothers,  and  the  same  is 
said  of  Israel  and  the  Edomites.  In  all  other  passages 
the  word  '  brother  '  refers  to  a  brother  in  the  flesh. 
In  accordance  with  this  meaning,  the  Gospel  after 
Matthew  refers  to  the  brothers  of  Jesus  and  to  the 
sons  of  his  mother  Mary  by  giving  their  names,  James, 
Joseph,  Simon,  and  Jude,  and  it  is  added  that  Jesus 
had  also  sisters.  Confirming  the  only  possible  inter- 
pretation of  this  passage,  it  is  asserted  as  well  in 
Matthew  as  in  Luke,  that  Jesus  was  the  '  firstborn  '  son 
of  Mary,  as  if  she  had  other  children  ;  and  in  the  first 
three  Gospels  '  his  mother  and  his  brethren  '  are  in 
such  a  manner  named  in  conjunction  with  Jesus,  that 
his  brothers  must  necessarily  be  regarded  as  sons  of  his 
mother.1  It  is  therefore  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  the 
impossibility  of  the  assumption  that  two  sisters  had 
the  same  name,  which  would  be  without  precedent 
in  Israelitic  history.  According  to  the  Gospel  after 
Matthew  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  Mary  was  the 
mother  of  Jesus  and  of  other  children.  Yet  there  is  a 
passage  in  Mark  which  is  absolutely  irreconcilable 
with  the  above  passages  and   their  evident  meaning. 

1  Matt.  xiii.  55,  56,  i.  25,  xii.  46,  47 ;  Mark  iii.  31 ;  Luke  ii.  7. 


266  JAMES   AND   THE   ESSENESi 

Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus  is  distinguished  from  Mary 
the  mother  of  James  the  Less  and  of  Joses.1  Two 
sisters  are  here  supposed  to  have  been  called  Mary,  and 
to  have  inhabited  the  same  house  at  Capernaum  and 
Jerusalem,  and  yet  the  names  of  the  two  sons  of  the 
one  correspond  with  those  of  the  two  elder  sons  of  the 
other.     It  is  needless  to  consider  such  absurdity. 

Discarding  the  tradition  recorded  in  Mark  as  not 
possibly  historical,  and  seeing  that  Mary  was  the  mother 
of  other  children  than  Jesus  her  firstborn,  it  is  of  but 
secondary  importance  to  enquire  whether  Jesus  alone 
was  held  to  be  the  son  of  Joseph  the  carpenter,  or 
whether  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  Jesus  had  likewise 
Joseph  for  their  father.  Whilst  Eusebius  writes  that 
James  was  called  the  brother  of  the  Lord  '  because  he 
also  (like  Jesus)  was  called  son  of  Joseph,'  Epiphanius 
designates  James  as  the  son  of  Joseph  by  a  previous 
marriage.  By  the  latter  statement  it  is  implied  that 
Jesus  cannot  have  been  the  only  son  of  Joseph,  though 
he  might  possibly  have  been  the  only  son  of  Mary. 
Both  Eusebius  and  Epiphanius  agree  that  James  was 
the  son  of  Joseph,  and  the  Gospel  after  Matthew  refers 
to  a  James  and  Joseph  and  Simon  and  Jude,  as  brothers, 
and  to  sisters  of  Jesus,  as  children  of  Joseph  and  Mary. 
We  saw  that  an  attempt  was  sooner  or  later  made  in 
the  Gospel  after  Mark  to  distinguish  the  mother  of 
Jesus  from  the  mother  of  his  brothers  and  sisters.  For 
this  there  was  the  obvious  reason  that  the  supposed 
Angel-Messiah,  like  Gautama-Buddha,  must  be  consi- 
dered to  have  been  born  of  a  virgin.  In  like  manner 
an  attempt  was  made,  no  doubt  for  the  same  reason,  to 
undermine  the  tradition  about  James  and  Jesus  being 
brothers  in  the  flesh.  The  earliest  Fathers  who  mystify 
the  descent  of  James  are  Chrysostom  (born  347)  and 
Theodoret  (bishop  since  420),  who  designate  him  as 
son  of  Alphseus  (Cleophas).  Both  originally  belonged  to 

1  Mark  xv.  40 ;  corup.  Eus.  H.  E.,\\.  1. 


CLEOPHAS   OR   ALPII.EUS.  267 

the  Antiochiaii  Church,  which  Ave  have  connected  with 
the  Essenes.  Since  they  believed  that  Jesus  was  the 
Angel-Messiah,  the  Essenes  probably  denied  that  he  had 
brothers  and  sisters,  as  Buddhists  did  about  Gautama. 

The  third  and  the  fourth  Gospels  can  be  shown  to 
be  the  principal  records  of  Essenian  tradition,  and  in 
them  alone  the  name  of  Clopas  or  Cleophas  occurs. 
The  name  of  one  of  the  two  disciples  of  Emmaus  was 
Cleophas,  and  the  name  of  his  companion  is  not  given. 
Paul  refers  to  an  apparition  of  the  risen  Jesus  to  James 
the  brother  of  the  Lord,  and  as  no  reference  is  made  in 
any  Gospel  to  this  apparition,  whilst  Luke  and  the 
later  revisor  of  the  third  Gospel  was  the  most  likely 
Evangelist  to  supply  this  omission,  we  are  at  the  outset 
led  to  the  possibility,  that  James  was  intended  to  have 
been  the  companion  of  Cleophas  or  Alphasus  by  the 
composer  of  the  narrative  of  the  disciples  of  Emmaus. 
We  have  seen  that  this  narrative,  which  Luke  cannot 
have  written,  is  certainly  not  historical  in  the  form 
transmitted  to  us.  The  question  has  now  become  one 
of  secondary  interest  whether  the  inventor  of  the  narra- 
tive about  the  disciples  of  Emmaus  intended  to  suggest 
that  James  was  the  nameless  companion  of  Cleophas. 
The  tradition  transmitted  by  Jerome  as  recorded  in  the 
Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  indirectly  confirms  this  narrative 
by  transmitting  the  legend  that  James  fasted  after  the 
crucifixion  till  the  risen  Jesus  appeared  to  him  and 
bade  him  eat.  This  tradition  as  well  as  the  probably 
identical  one  about  the  apparition  of  Jesus  to  James 
according  to  Paul,  is  not  confirmed  by  any  Gospel- 
record,  unless  James  was  the  unnamed  disciple  of 
Emmaus,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  composer  of  this 
fictitious  narrative  intended  to  suowst  this. 

Every  explanation  hitherto  attempted  of  the  irrecon- 
cilable statements  in  the  Gospels  about  the  descent  of 
James,  '  the  brother  of  the  Lord,'  leads  to  forced  and  to 
improbable,  if  not  impossible,  assumptions.    If  it  can  be 


268  JAMES   AND   THE    ESSENES. 

proved  that  Eusebius  was  right  in  considering  it 
'  highly  probable  '  that  our  Gospels,  like  the  Pauline 
Epistles,  were  composed  under  direct  Essenic  influence 
and  in  harmony  with  written  Essenic  tradition,  all 
passages  which  refer  directly  or  indirectly  to  an  exclu- 
sively supernatural  birth  of  Jesus,  whether  or  not  in 
the  writings  in  question  he  is  recognised  as  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  will  have  to  be  connected  with  this  source. 
Among  these  passages  we  reckon  the  isolated  state- 
ment in  Matthew  about  the  virgin-born,  to  which 
Clement  of  Alexandria  does  not  refer,  as  if  the  text  did 
not  then  contain  it,  when  he  declares,  as  already 
shown,  that  the  views  of  some  about  the  virginity  of 
Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  were  not  founded  in  fact. 
With  these  additions  must  be  connected  all  the  pas- 
sages in  the  Gospels  which  imply  that  another  Mary 
than  the  mother  of  Jesus  was  the  mother  of  his 
brothers  and  sisters. 


James  the  Nazarite  and  Highpriest. 

According  to  the  Acts,  the  leader  of  the  Apostles 
was  Peter,  and  he  remained  in  this  position  for  some 
time  after  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  and  probably  till  he 
was  imprisoned  by  Herod  Agrippa,  we  suggest  as 
early  as  in  the  year  41.  We  saw  that  there  are  good 
reasons  for  assuming  that  in  the  sixth  year  after  the 
death  of  Jesus,  or  about  a  year  later,  James  took  the 
place  of  Peter.  For  when  this  Apostle,  miraculously 
liberated,  left  Jerusalem  for  another  place,  he  requested 
the  disciples  whom  lie  had  found  gathered  together  in 
the  house  of  Mark's  mother,  to  inform  '  James  and  the 
brethren  '  of  his  escape.  Whilst  Peter  was  absent  from 
Jerusalem,  perhaps  in  Eome,1  Paul  was  in  Arabia,  that 
is,  in  the  East  Jordan  country,  and  they  both  met  at 
Jerusalem  after  three  years,  that  is,  after  the  death  of 

1  See  Chronology  of  the  Bible. 


THE    PKIXCE    OF   THE   APOSTLES.  269 

Herod  Agrippa  L,  who  had  ruled  three  years.  Thus  it 
becomes  probable  that  the  three  years  which  Paul  spent 
in  Arabia,  and  Peter  possibly  in  Koine,  coincided  with 
the  three  years'  government  of  Herod.  What  happened 
at  Jerusalem  during  the  mysterious  fifteen  days  when 
Paid  abode  with  Peter,  we  know  not,  but  Paul  says 
that  he  also  saw  James,  '  the  Lord's  brother.'  In  the 
same  Epistle  he  mentions  James  before  Cephas  and 
John,  when  referring  to  their  being  regarded  as  '  pillars.' 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  James  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  Apostles  ever  since  Peter's  imprisonment, 
and  he  maintained  that  position  for  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  up  to  his  martyrdom. 

We  know  not  for  what  reason  James  the  brother  of 
John  was  beheaded,  and  why  Peter  was  put  into  prison. 
It  is  quite  possible,  as  we  pointed  out,  that  this  was 
owing  to  their  opposition  to  the  Temple-service  with  its 
sacrifices,  and  to  their  frequenting  exclusively  the  anti- 
hierarchical  synagogues,  as  Jesus  had  always  done.  This 
example  had  even  been  followed  by  some  of  the  Phari- 
sees, although  the  rigid  maintainers  of  the  law,  the 
Sadducees,  never  attended  the  synagogue.  Son  of  a 
Maccabsean  mother,  Agrippa  would  aim  at  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Temple-services  as  the  exclusive  form  of 
Jewish  devotion.  Herod  the  Great,  his  father,  had  been 
too  lax  in  this  respect,  and  had  encouraged  idolatry  of 
the  grossest  kind.  Supported  by  the  Sadducees,  who 
had  persecuted  Jesus  and  his  disciples,  we  may  safely 
assume  that  Agrippa  I.  insisted  on  the  regular  atten- 
dance of  the  Apostles  at  the  Temple-services.  For  it 
is  a  recorded  fact,  that  they  were  regularly  •  in  the 
Temple  at  the  time  of  prayer.  Thus  they  ceased  to 
follow  the  example  of  their  Master.  Although  the 
Apostles  were  not  scattered  during  the  persecution 
which  arose  because  of  Stephen,  they  were  in  fact  in- 
cluded in  this  persecution  ;  but  it  seems  to  have  been 
soon   stopped    for   two   reasons,    because   the    second 


270  JAMES    AND    THE    ESSENES. 

Agrippa  was  more  friendly  to  them,  and  because  they 
regularly  attended  the  Temple-services,  which  Jesus 
had  never  done.  This  is  what  all  Nazarites  did  ;  and 
as  Nazarite  James,  the  brother  of  Jesus,  could  offer 
to  Agrippa  L,  the  reported  friend  of  the  Nazarites, 
every  guarantee  which  he  must  have  been  desirous  to 
obtain. 

The  traditions  respecting  James  which  have  been 
transmitted  by  Hegesippus,  the  first  Jewish -Christian, 
and  possibly  Essenic-Christian  Church-historian,  if  we 
could  safely  regard  them  all  as  historical,  would  be 
important,  because  his  parents  were  contemporaries  of 
the  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  and  because,  as  Eusebius 
says,  Hegesippus  stood  nearest  to  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles. According  to  this  tradition  James  had  been  called 
the  Just  or  Zadik  '  from  the  time  of  the  Lord  to  our 
own  days,  .  .  he  was  holy  from  his  mother's 
womb,  he  drank  not  wine  or  strong  drink,  nor  did  he 
eat  animal  food  ;  a  razor  came  not  upon  his  head,  he 
did  not  anoint  himself  with  oil,  he  did  not  use  the  bath; 
he  alone  might  go  into  the  holy  place,  for  he  wore  no 
woollen  clothes  but  linen  ;  and  alone  he  used  to  go  into 
the  Temple,  and  there  he  was  commonly  found  upon  his 
knees,  praying  for  forgiveness  for  the  people,  so  that  his 
knees  grew  dry  and  thin  (hard  ?)  like  a  camel's,  from 
his  constantly  bending  them  in  prayer,  and  entreating 
forgiveness  for  the  people.' l  We  shall  point  out  why 
James  '  alone '  went  into  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy, 
whilst,  contrary  to  the  custom  of  his  brother  Jesus, 
all  the  Apostles  regularly  attended  the  daily  services  in 
the  Temple.  We  may  regard  these  statements  as  equally 
historical,  and  as  throwing  light  on  the  early  relations 
between  Judaism  and  Christianity. 

Of  the  remaining  account  it  is  here  sufficient  to 
state  that  the  martyrdom  of  James  in  the  presence  of 
'  one  of  the  priests  of  the  house  of  Eechab,'  (priests  of 

1  Eus.  H.  E.  ii.  23. 


MESSIANIC    VIEWS    OF    JAMES.  271 

the  Essenes),  took  place  in  consequence  of  his  having 
declared  in  the  Temple,  that  '  Jesus  the  Son  of  Man  sits 
in  heaven  on  the  right  hand  of  great  power,  and  will 
come  on  the  clouds  of  heaven.'  By  this  declaration,  if 
he  made  it,  James  proclaimed  the  Essenic  and  Paulinic 
faith  in  his  brother  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah.  This 
Essenic  Christianity  is  said  to  have  been  proclaimed 
openly  in  the  Temple  by  James  at  the  time  of  the 
Passover,  immediately  before  the  Eomans  laid  siege  to 
Jerusalem.  Hegesippus  states  that  '  many  were  con- 
vinced, and  gave  glory  on  the  testimony  of  James, 
crying  Hosannah  to  the  Son  of  David.'  Whereupon  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  stoned  James  to  death. 

Since  Hegesippus  does  not  censure  the  conduct  of 
James  in  proclaiming  the  Essenic  and  Eechabite  doc- 
trine of  the  Angel-Messiah,  applied  to  Jesus,  as  Stephen 
and  Paul  had  done,  Ave  have  sufficient  reason  to 
regard  Hegesippus  as  an  Essenic  or  Paulinic  Christian, 
and  to  doubt  his  transmitted  testimony  that  James  be- 
lieved his  brother  Jesus  to  have  been  an  incarnate 
Angel.  But  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  some  of 
the  Eechabites,  Nazarites  like  James,  would  sympathise 
with  his  death,  though  he  had  not  proclaimed  Jesus  as 
the  Angel-Messiah,  which  Hegesippus  says  he  did, 
almost  in  the  very  words  of  Stephen.  If  Hegesippus 
believed  in  Jesus  as  the  Angel-Messiah,  he  would  see 
the  importance  of  attributing  that  doctrine  to  James 
the  brother  of  Jesus,  and  of  describing  him  as  stoned 
to  death,  like  Stephen,  as  a  supposed  blasphemer. 

Discarding  this  tradition  of  Hegesippus,  it  may  be 
regarded  as  not  improbable  that  James  was  a  Nazarite 
for  life,  and  thus  stood  in  near  relation  to  the  Essenes, 
with  whom  we  must  connect  the  Eechabites.  Accord- 
ing to  their  descent  both  James  and  Jesus  were  connec- 
ted with  the  naturalised  strangers  in  Israel,  with  the 
Eechabites  and  Kenites,  and  thus  almost  certainly  with 
the  Essenes,  who  were  probably  descendants   of  the 


272  JAMES   AND    THE    ESSENES. 

Medo-Chaldaeans.  Jesus  opposed  the  principal  doctrines 
of  the  Essenes,  especially  that  about  the  Angel-Messiah. 
He  was  an  Essenic  reformer,  and  not  a  Nazarite.  The 
Pharisees  were  Iranians,  like  the  Essenes,  Eechabites, 
and  Kenites,  according  to  our  ethnic  scheme.  If  so,  the 
Pharisees  knew  the  mixed  Indian  and  Iranian  or  Magian 
doctrines  which  the  Essenes  propounded,  as  well  as 
those  purer  doctrines  of  the  East-Iranians  or  of 
Zoroaster,  which  Jesus  proclaimed  by  word  and  deed. 
The  condemnation  of  Jesus,  not  by  the  Sadducees  but 
by  the  Pharisees,  would  be  thus  accounted  for. 

The  connection  between  Eechabites  or  Kenites  and 
Essenes,  apart  from  their  probably  cognate  descent, 
enables  us  to  consider  as  possibly  historical  the  state- 
ment of  Hegesippus,  according  to  which  he  could,  like 
a  Highpriest,  enter  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy.  This 
account  is  confirmed  by  Epiphanius,  who  states,  on  the 
authority  of  Clement,  Eusebius,  and  others,  that  James 
'  the  son  of  Joseph  '  was  permitted  to  wear  on  his  fore- 
head the  golden  plate  with  the  words  '  Holiness  to  the 
Lord,'  or  '  Holy  Jehovah.'  This  statement  is  again  con- 
firmed by  the  tradition  transmitted  by  Polycrates  and 
credited  by  Eusebius,  that  also  the  Apostle  John,  son 
of  Zebedee,  possessed  this  privilege  of  the  Aaronites. 
The  same  tradition  refers  to  the  unnatural  death  of  the 
two  sons  of  Zebedee,  that  of  John  being  also  testified  by 
a  recently  found  fragment  of  Papias,  probably  the 
bishop  of  Hierapolis.1  The  two  remarkable  statements 
may  therefore  be  regarded  as  probably  historical,  that 
James  could  enter  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy,  like  a  High- 
priest,  and  that  he  possessed  also  the  Highpriestly  and 
Aaronic  privilege  of  wearing  the  golden  plate  or  Petalon 
described  by  Josephus,  who  says  that  the  identical  one 
made  in  the  times  of  Moses  existed  at  his  time.  It  may 
be  possible  from  the  Essenic  or  Eechabite  point  of  view 

1  Epipb.  liar.  xxix.  4,  lxxviii.  14  ;  Eus.  H.  E.  v.  24;  comp.  Scholten, 
Der  Apostel  Johannes  ;  Holtzmanu,  Bibel-Lexikon,  iii.  38o. 


HIGHTEIESTH00D    OF   THE   STRANGERS   IN    ISRAEL.        273 

to  throw  some  new  light  on  the  highpriestly  character 
attributed  to  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles. 

It  is  necessary  to  repeat  what  we  have  pointed  out 
about  the  two  Highpriests  in  Israel  and  about  their 
probable  connection  with  the  two  Aaronic  lines,  if  not 
with  the  political  parties  of  the  Sadducees  and  the  Pha- 
risees, the  latter  of  which  was  not  so  ancient  as  the 
party  of  the  Essenes  or  Eechabites. 

Jeremiah  had  in  the  Name  of  God  promised  to 
the  Eechabites  or  strangers  in  Israel  an  uninterrupted 
standing  before  the  Lord,  that  is,  a  succession  of  High- 
priests  of  the  sons  of  Eechab,  who  should  officiate  in 
the  Holiest  of  the  Holy.  At  the  time  of  the  Eeturn  from 
Babylon  Ezechiel  complains,  that  Israel  has  brought 
into  God's  sanctuary  strangers  uncircumcised  in  heart 
and  in  the  flesh,  to  be  in  God's  sanctuary  'to  pollute  it, 
even  my  house  when  ye  offer  my  bread,  the  fat  and 
the  blood.'1  This  can  only  refer  to  a  Highpriest  repre- 
senting the  uncircumcised  stranger  in  the  Holiest  of  the 
Holy,  in  harmony  with  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  the 
fulfilment  of  which  Ezechiel  clearly  condemns  in  the 
Name  of  the  same  God  who  had  commanded  Jeremiah 
to  make  that  solemn  promise.  Ezechiel  seems  to  imply 
that  the  junior  Aaronic  line  of  Ithamar  had  been 
admitted  to  represent  the  Highpriesthoocl  of  the 
naturalised  stranger  in  Israel,  of  the  Ger,  who,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  foreigner  or  Nokhri,  was  admitted, 
like  the  Hebrew,  to  the  Temple-services.  For  Ezechiel 
states  that  the  sons  of  Zadoc  only,  who  belonged  to 
the  elder  Aaronic  line  of  Eleazar,  and  who  had  stood 
by  David  during  Absalom's  rebellion,  that  they  shall 
'  stand  before '  God,  that  is,  appear  as  Highpriests 
in  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy.  At  the  time  of  Zerubbabel, 
when  Ezechiel  wrote,  the  prophet  Zechariah  approved 
in  the  Name  of  God  everything  that  was  done  by  Zerub- 

1  Jer.  xxxv.  18,  11 ;  Ezek.  xliv.  7-31 ;  Einh.  der  Eel.  i.  288-312, 

T 


274  JAMES    AND    THE    ESSENBS. 

babel  and  Joshua.1  The  latter  may  have  belonged  to 
the  Aaronic  line  of  Ithamar,  which  name  is  a  compound 
of  Jah,  and  Thamar  '  the  stranger,'  according  to  Philo. 
•  The  remarkable  omission  of  the  generations  of  the 
line  of  Ithamar  in  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  whilst  those 
of  the  line  of  Eleazar  are  twice  mentioned,  can  hardly 
be  otherwise  explained  than  by  the  assumption  that 
these  two  lines  of  Aaronites  represented  respectively 
the  ethnic  dualism  in  Israel,  the  Hebrew  and  the 
non-Hebrew  or  the  stranger,  who  seems  to  have  been 
uncircumcised  from  the  statement  made  by  Ezechiel 
about  uncircumcised  Highpriests  in  the  Holiest  of  the 
Holy.  This  dualism  is  in  so  far  confirmed  by  Scripture- 
accounts,  as  the  Aaronites  of  the  elder  line  had  their  pos- 
sessions exclusively  in  Benjamin,  the  junior  line  exclu- 
sively in  Juda,  with  which  tribe  the  Kenites  or  Eecha- 
bites  were  united  ever  since  the  time  of  Joshua.  The 
Kenites  of  Jethro  had  been  invited  by  Moses  to  join 
the  '  mixed  multitude  '  which  went  out  of  Egypt,  and 
according  to  the  Book  of  Chronicles  both  Eleazar  and 
Ithamar  'executed  the  priest's  office.'  Again,  in  the 
time  of  Saul,  the  Benjamite,  the  elder  line  sided  with 
him,  the  younger  line  with  David  ;  and  if  Abiathar  had 
not  escaped  from  the  massacre  at  Nob,  all  the  members 
of  the  line  of  Ithamar  would  have  been  killed.  David 
made  peace  between  the  apparently  rival  Aaronic  lines 
by  establishing  the  double  Highpriesthood  of  Abiathar 
and  Zadok. 

Such  a  double  Highpriesthood  seems  to  have  been 
appointed  after  the  Eeturn  from  Babylon.  For  at  that 
time  Ezechiel  complained  of  the  uncircumcised  High- 
priest  in  the  Holiest  of  the  Holy,  and  Zechariah  de- 
scribes Joshua  and  Satan  or  the  adversary,  as  if  the 
second   Highpriest,   standing   before  the  Lord   in  the 

1  We  have  already  referred  to  Joshua's  having  probably  composed  the 
110th  Psalm,  which  seems  to  refer  to  Jeremiah's  promise  to  the  Rechabites, 
perhaps  first  fulfilled  by  Joshua's  Highpriesthood, 


JOSEPH    OF    A    HIGHPRIESTLY    FAMILY.  2?6 

Holiest  of  the  Holy.  In  the  time  immediately  preceding 
the  accession  of  James  to  the  leadership  of  the  Apostles, 
the  double  Highpriesthood  is  testified  by  the  Gospel- 
records.  Luke  mentions  Annas  and  Caiaphas  as  con- 
temporaneous Highpriests,  and  he  connects  Annas  as  well 
as  Caiaphas  with  others  who  were  '  of  the  kindred  of  the 
high  priest.'  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  among  these  a 
second  bore  the  title  of  Highpriest,  since  '  the  High- 
priests  '  are  said  to  have  demanded  the  crucifixion  of 
Jesus.  Before  the  deportation  to  Babylon  Zephaniah 
was  joined  as  '  second  priest '  to  Seraiah,  '  the  first 
priest,'  both  of  whom  were  slain  at  Kiblah.  We  are 
justified  in  assuming  that  either  Caiaphas  or  Annas 
was  in  a  similar  sense  the  second  Highpriest,  who,  accord- 
ing to  Eabbinical  traditions,  was  the  Sagan.  The  po- 
sition of  James  at  the  head  of  the  Apostles  is  described 
as  one  similar  to  that  of  the  Highpriest.  As  Highpriest 
James  would  have  the  privilege  of  entering  the  Holiest  of 
the  Holy  and  of  wearing  the  Aaronic  gold  plate  on  his 
forehead.1  Assuming  that  James  really  had  these  pri- 
vileges, we  should  be  driven  to  the  further  assumption 
that  the  family  of  Joseph,  the  father  of  Jesus  and  James, 
was  one  of  those  from  the  members  of  which  the  High- 
priests  were  chosen.  We  should  have  to  assume  the 
same  about  the  family  of  Zebeclee. 

If  the  brother  of  Jesus  and  Prince  of  the  Apostles, 
whose  life  bridges  over  almost  the  entire  Apostolic 
period,  not  only  went  with  the  other  Apostles  to  the 
Temple  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  contrary  to  the  custom 
of  Jesus,  but  if  James  also  entered  the  Holiest  of  the 
Holy  with  the  Aaronic  mark  on  his  forehead,  whether 
or  not  he  belonged  to  one  of  the  Highpriestly  families, 
an  important  connection  of  the  first  Christian  Bishop 
with  the  Jewish  Highpriesthood,  the  amalgamation 
of  both  institutions  would  thereby  be  confirmed. 

1  Luke  iii.  2  ;  Acts  iv.  6 ;  John  xviii.  15,  16;  comp.  2  Kings  xy.  18; 
xxiii.  4:  Acts  xxi.  17,  18:  xxiii.  2,  5. 

T  2 


276  JAMES   AND    THE    ESSENES. 

The  Epistle  of  James. 

Two  arguments  have  been  raised  against  the  James 
of  this  Epistle  being  the  first  Christian  Bishop.  The 
statement  of  Hegesippus  is  not  relied  upon,  that  '  im- 
mediately '  after  the  martyrdom  of  James  '  Vespasian 
invaded  and  took  Judaea,'  and  the  year  62  is  preferred 
for  his  martyrdom  on  the  strength  of  a  passage  in 
Josephus,  although  it  is  on  good  grounds  regarded  as  a 
late  interpolation.  Since  this  Epistle  unmistakably  re- 
fers to  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  to  the  Apocalypse 
of  the  year  68-69,  this  Epistle  could  not  have  been 
written  by  '  the  brother  of  the  Lord  '  if  he  died  in  62. 
This  conclusion  has  been  supported  by  the  assumption 
that  the  statement  of  the  poor  being  drawn  before  the 
judgment  seats  by  the  rich  refers  to  a  general  persecu- 
tion of  Christians  by  those  rich  who  were  outside  of 
Christianity,  by  the  Eomans,  which  cannot  be  proved  to 
have  taken  place  before  Trajan.1  We  do  not  accept 
either  argument,  and  regard  the  Apostle  James  as  the 
author  of  this  Epistle. 

Indirectly  connected  with  the  Essenes  as  a  Nazarite, 
though  not  an  actual  member  of  the  Essenic  body  in 
Palestine,  James  defends  the  strict  keeping  of  the  Law, 
including  the  exclusion  of  Gentiles,  of  whose  admission 
he  says  nothing,  against  the  figurative  interpretation  of 
the  Law,  as  practised  by  the  Essenes  or  Therapeuts  of 
Egypt,  and  against  their  illegal  principle  of  universality. 
A  regard  for  peace,  and  for  the  high  position  gained  by 
Paul,  causes  James  not  to  mention  Paul  by  name,  but 
his  principal  doctrines  are  unsparingly  opposed.  Paul 
having  referred  to  the  temptation  to  commit  idolatry, 
without  denouncing  the  eating  of  things  sacrificed  to 
idols,  and  having  expressed  the  glory  of  Christians  in 
6  tribulations,'  James  also  advises  the  brethren  to  count 
it  all  joy  when  they  fall  '  into  divers  temptations,'  yet 
points  not,  like  Paul,  to  '  hope,'  but  to  the  '  perfect 

1  Hilgenfeld,  I.e.,  520  542, 


'  DIVERS   TEMPTATIONS.  277 

work.'  The  temptations  come  from  within,  and  they 
can  be  resisted.  For  <  of  his  own  will '  the  Father  of 
Lights,  the  source  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  has 
begotten  <  us,'  the  Israel  of  the  twelve  tribes,  including 
the  Christians  as  in  the  Apocalypse,  '  with  the  word  of 
truth,  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  firstfruit  of  his 
creatures.'  * 

Already  Moses  had  said  that  '  the  Word  '  is  in  the 
Israelite  that  he  may  do  it ;  and  referring  to  this  passage, 
or  to  a  '  Scripture '  not  transmitted  to  us,  James  writes  : 
'  The  Spirit  that  he  placed  in  us  zealously  (urgingly) 
desireth  us,'  prompts  us,  or  demands  of  us.     It  is  the 
6  Name  '  or  Spirit,  or  Word   of  God,  which   is   in  the 
Israelite  as  in  the  Angel  of  the  Lord.    Thus  Israel,  '  the 
firstborn  of  nations,'  was  always  destined  to  be  a  kind 
of  firstfruit  of  God's  creatures.     But  Paul  had  regarded 
this  passage  in  the  Mosaic  Scriptures  as  a  prophecy  that 
Jesus  would  be  '  raised   from  the  dead  '  as  the  '  end  of 
the  law,'  as  the  Son  of  God  '  according  to  the  spirit  of 
holiness,'  as  the  restorer  of  the  Spirit  or  Word  of  God, 
through  whose  death  came  '  the  free  gift '  of  God,  '  the 
promised  Spirit  through  faith'.     That  faith  should  be 
revealed  after  the  law,  which  latter  has  nothing  to  do 
with  faith.    The  law  cannot  justify,  and  enables  man  to 
serve  only '  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter,'  not '  in  the  new- 
ness of  the  Spirit,'  or  in  the  new  created  being  of  the 
Spirit,  '  as  a  new  creature.'    The  restorer  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  which  was  not '  always  to  strive  with  man,'  has  been 
raised  from  the  dead   as  '  the  firstfruits   of  them    that 
sleep.'     This  new  doctrine,  connected  by  Paul  with  the 
type  of  the  firstling  sheaf  and  thus  with  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus  as  the  first  fruits  on  '  the  third  day  according 
to  the  Scriptures,'  James  opposes  by  his  doctrine  of  '  the 
firstfruit  of  God's  creatures.'  Thus  he  denies  the  new  dis- 
pensation of  Paul's  Christianity,  together  with  any  theory 
about  the  visible  resurrection  of  Jesus,  on  which,  as  on 

1  James  i.  2-17;  1  Cor.  x.  13;  Rom.  v.  3-5;  James  i.  17,  18. 


278  JAMES   AND   THE   ESSENES. 

the  atonement,  the  Epistle  observes  a  mysterious  silence. 
Not  the  sacrificial  death  of  a  crucified  Angel-Messiah, 
but  the  implanted,  or  '  the  engrafted  Word,'  of  which 
Moses  spoke  as  then  already  at  work  in  Israel,  if  not  in 
mankind,  is  able  to  '  save  '  the  soul.1 

'  The  word  of  truth,'  which   God  has  implanted  in 
Israel  alone,  or,  at  least,  of  which  only  Israel  is  con- 
scious, cannot  make  man  a  first  fruit  of  God's  creatures 
unless  that  word  is  done  as  well  as  heard.     That  inner 
voice,  coining  from  without,  produces  conscience,  the  ark 
in  which  '  the  law  of  liberty  '  has  been  deposited,  which 
shall  judge  the  elect.     Man  is  to  be  '  a  doer  of  work,' 
and    if  he  is  prompted  to  do  it  by  the  Wisdom  from 
above,  he  will  be  '  blessed  in  his  deed.'     No  '  faith  '  can 
save  him.     '  A  man  may  say :  Thou  (Paul)  hast  faith, 
and  I  have  works,  show  me  thy  faith  without  works, 
and  I  will  show  thee  faith  from  my  works.'     Having 
shown  that  '  faith  without  works  is  dead,'  and   taking 
no   cognisance  of  Paul's    recommending  '  faith  which 
worketh  by  love,'  James  opposes  Paul's  scriptural  au- 
thority for  his  doctrine  of  justification  by   faith.     Paul 
had  said  that  faithful  Abraham's  belief  in  God,  not  any 
work  of  his,  '  was  reckoned  to  him  for  righteousness.' 
For  the  works  of  the  law  placed  man  '  under  a  curse,' 
which  continued  till  '  Christ  redeemed  us  from  the  curse 
of  the  law,  having  become  a  curse  for  us,'  which  was 
necessary  '  that  we  might  receive  the  promised  Spirit 
through  faith.'   Apollos  had  followed  in  the  same  strain, 
and  designated  the  offering  of  Isaac,  and  Eahab's  recep- 
tion of  the  spies  as  a  deed   prompted  by  faith.      But 
James   insists   that  Abraham  was  'justified  by  works 
when  lie  offered  Isaac,'  and  so,  likewise  Eahab,  *  when 
she    received    the    messengers   and    thrust    them   forth 
another  way.'     The  Epistle  of  James  is  a  protest  against 
the  Paulinic  doctrine,  that  it  is  impossible  to  be  '  under 

1  Dent.  xxx.  11-20 ;  Rom.  x.  4-21 ;   Gal.   iii.   13,  14 ;  vi.  15,  2  Cor. 
v.  17  ;  1  Cor.  xv.  4,  20. 


OPP0SITI0X    TO    PAULS    MESSIANIC    DOCTRIXK.  279 

the  law  '  and  yet  to  be  '  led  by  the  Spirit.'  The  Prince 
of  the  Apostles  denies  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  not 
been  in  Israel  till  Christ's  death  restored  it  to  the  faith- 
ful in  mankind.  The  great  lawgiver  had  said  that  the 
Word  is  in  man  that  he  may  do  it.1 

James  implies  that  the  implanted  6  Word,'  the  real 
Saviour,  is  identical  with  the  '  Wisdom  '  which  '  de- 
scends from  above,'  as  also  with  the  '  Spirit '  which  God 
made  to  dwell  in  us.  Thus  the  Apostle  clearly  opposes 
Paid's  doctrine  that  the  Word  of  God,  which  already 
Philo  designated  as  a  premundane  person  and  second 
Deity,  that  '  the  man  from  heaven,'  the  Angel  of  God 
who  had  followed  the  Israelites,  had  become  incarnate 
in  Jesus.  Yet  he  calls  him  '  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Lord  of  glory.'  Standing  on  the  rock  of  Peter's  con- 
fession, James  regards  his  brother  as  the  man  whom 
God  has  anointed  or  made  Christ  '  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  with  power,'  and  in  this  sense  as  4  the  Son  of  the 
living  God.'  Not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  '  the  Lord  ' 
and  '  the  Judge,'  God,  was  expected  soon  to  come.' 2 

The  Chrestus-party  among  the  Jews  in  Eome,  to 
which  Simon  Magus  the  '  Christian '  seems  to  have  be- 
longed, shows  that  the  name  of  Christians,  which  had 
originated  in  Antioch ,  the  centre  of  Simon's  activity,  was 
used  soon  after  the  accession  of  James  to  the  Apostle- 
ship.  Yet  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  acknowledges 
even  indirectly  the  designation  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
as  Christians,  when  he  refers  to  that  '  beautiful  name  ' 
by  which  the  scattered  Israelites  are  called,  whom  he 
addresses,  and  among  whom  he  includes  the  disciples 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  customary  to  connect  this  passage 
with  the  Name  of  God  by  which  Israel  was  called.3 
Even  if  this  could  be  proved,  it  might  be  explained  by 
the  '  Name '  as  the  Spirit  or  Word  of  God,  which  is  in 

1  Rom.  iv. ;  Gal.  iii.  ;  comp.  Hebrews  x.  8-10,  17-31  ;  James  ii. 

2  James  i.  1  ;  ii.  1 ;  v.  7-11. 

3  Deut.  xxviii.  10 ;  2  Chron.  vii.  17 ;  Jer.  xiv.  9,  xv.  16 ;  Am.  ix.  12. 


280  JAMES   AXD    THE   ESSENES. 

the  Angel  and  in  tlie  Israelites.  But  James  seems  to 
refer  to  the  name  of '  brethren,'  as  which  he  regards  all 
Israelites,  rich  or  poor,  whether  Hebrews  or  Grecians, 
whether  disciples  of  Jesus  or  not.  The  poor  or  the 
Ebionite  was  an  early  designation  of  the  followers  of 
Jesus,  some  of  whom  continued  in  the  fourth  century 
to  call  themselves  Nazaraeans,  and  did  not  acknow- 
ledge Paul.  The  rich,  wearing  gay  clothing,  were 
admitted  to  better  seats  in  the  '  synagogue  '  than  the 
poor  ;  they  were  despised,  and  yet  Jesus  had  preached 
the  Gospel  to  the  poor. 

The  Epistle  which  Peter  addressed  to  James  from 
Eome,  according  to  the  Clementine  Homilies,  corresponds 
with  the  injunction  in  the  Eecognitions,  not  to  accept 
any  teacher  who  had  not  brought  a  testimonial  from 
James.  '  The  chief  of  the  Jews  '  at  Eome,  who  con- 
nected Paul  with  '  a  sect  everywhere  spoken  against ' 
(the  Essenes),  declared  that  they  had  not  received 
6  letters  out  of  Judaea  concerning  him.'  The  additional 
statement,  that  none  of  the  brethren  that  came  had 
showed  or  spoken  '  any  harm  '  of  him,  is  a  contradic- 
tion to  what  precedes  it,  and  must  be  regarded  as  a  later 
addition,  made  in  harmony  with  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  the  Acts,  the  non-recognition  of  two  antagonis- 
tic parties  in  the  early  Church.  It  is  hardly  a  chance- 
coincidence  that  James  in  his  Epistle  complains  that 
there  were  '  many  teachers  '  in  Israel,  wise  men  '  en- 
dowed with  knowledge,'  but  not  with  '  meekness,'  who 
had  '  bitter  envying  and  ribaldry '  in  their  heart,  who 
boasted  and  lied  '  against  the  truth,'  whose  wisdom  de- 
scends not  from  above,  and  who  did  not  '  work  peace.' 
These  teachers,  even  if  authorised  by  James,  as  Paul 
had  been  by  the  Twelve,  to  preach  among  the  scattered 
tribes  of  Israel,  had  not  carried  out  their  mission  as 
James  wished.     Paul  makes  a  similar  charge.1 

The  acknowledged  Essenic  colouring  of  this  Epistle 

1  James  Hi.  1,  13-18  ;  Recog.  iv.  35;  Phil.  i.  15-18. 


NO   DISTINCTION    BETWEEN   JEWS   AND    CHRISTIANS.        281 

is  shown  by  James's  recommendation  to  be  '  swift  to 
hear,  slow  to  speak,  slow  to  wrath,'  by  his  prohibition 
of  swearing,  his  warning  against  riches,  and  against 
the  blemishing  influences  of  '  the  world.'  Although 
only  connected  with  the  Essenic  system  as  a  Naza- 
rite,  yet,  like  the  Essenes,  James  was  a  stranger  in 
Israel,  and  must  have  known  the  Essenic-Buddhistic 
tradition.  It  cannot  possibly  be  a  mere  chance-coinci- 
dence that  James  refers  to  '  the  wheel  of  birth,'  identical 
with  the  Buddhistic  expression  of  '  the  wheel  of  life  and 
death,'  that  is,  the  cycle  of  births  and  deaths,  or  the 
soul's  transmigrations.1  James  was  by  the  Initiated  un- 
derstood to  say,  that  the  tongue,  set  on  fire  by  hell, 
inflames  the  whole  body,  even  of  future  generations. 

The  Epistle  of  James  proves,  that  up  to  the  time  of 
Judaea's  invasion  by  the  Eomans,  the  chief  of  the  Apos- 
tles, probably  the  Jewish  Highpriest,  and  first  Christian 
Bishop,  recognised  no  difference  between  the  Jews  and 
the  followers  of  Jesus,  and  did  not  acknowledge  the 
cardinal  doctrines  of  Paul,  which  we  have  connected 
with  those  of  the  Essenic,  universalist,  and  law-under- 
mining Therapeuts. 

In  what  connection  stood  the  Essenic  tradition  to 
the  Gnosis  of  the  Apostolic  and  of  the  after-Apostolic 
age? 

1  James  iii.  6 ;  comp.  p.  34  n.  2  ;  The  wheel,  Gilgnl  in  Hebrew  and  in 
Chaldee,  is  in  the  Talmud  used :  1)  in  connection  with  the  resurrection  of 
Jews  dying  in  foreign  lands,  like  Jacob  (Gen.  xlvii.  30),  which  is  connected 
with  the  motion  of  a  subterranean  wheel,  an  evidently  Eastern  conception  ; 
2)  when  discussing  the  question  whether  the  planets  rotate  round  their 
axis  or  round  the  fixed  stars ;  3)  as  a  figurative  expression  of  the  changes 
of  man's  destiny.  Kelhubot,  111  ;  Pesachim,  94 ;  Sabbath,  151.  (Commu- 
nicated by  Dr.  Leopold  Seligmann.) 


282  THE    GNOSIS, 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    GNOSIS. 
Essenic  Scriptures — Retrospect. 

Essenic  Scriptures. 

The  deeper  knowledge  or  Gnosis  of  the  Essenes,  their 
secret  tradition  of  Eastern  origin,  which  they  connected 
with  the  Scriptures  of  Moses  by  a  figurative  interpre- 
tation of  the  latter,  has  been  generally  accepted  by 
the  Targnmim,  but  rejected  in  essential  points  by  the 
Talmud.  Applied  to  Jesus,  this  gnosis  was  promulgated 
by  Stephen,  Paul,  and  Apollos,  in  the  universalist  or 
Therapeutic  form.  Paul  opposes  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Colossians  the  gnosis  of  the  separatist  Essenes,  with 
their  aristocratic  initiation,  their  asceticism,  and  their 
doctrine  of  more  than  One  Angelic  mediator.  '  All  the 
fulness '  dwelt  by  God's  pleasure  in  the  incarnate  Word 
of  God,  the  Angel  who  followed  the  Israelites,  and  in 
whom  is  the  Name,  Spirit,  or  Word  of  God.  He  is  'the 
Christ,  even  Jesus  the  Lord,'  whom  Paul  does  not  con- 
nect with  other  Arch-Angels,  as  was  done  a  few  years 
later  in  the  Apocalypse  of  'John.'  It  has  been  sa- 
gaciously suggested  by  a  high  authority  that  the  above 
cited  words  of  Paul  may  point  '  to  the  distinction  of  the 
heavenly  Christ  from  the  earthly  Jesus,'  which  doctrine 
avjis  taught  by  Cerinthus,  his  junior  contemporary.1 

Paul  and  Apollos  regarded  the  deeper  knowledge  or 
gnosis  as  eternally  existing  in  heaven,  as  known  to,  but 
hidden  by  Moses,  and  as  first  fully  revealed  by  the 
preachers  of  '  the  hidden  wisdom,'  under  the  especial 

1  Bishop  Lightfoot,  Colossians  (ii.  6),  p.  112. 


TWO    OK    THREE    DANIELS.  283 

guidance  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Angel-Messiah  or  Wisdom 
of  God  who  had  sent  all  the  prophets.  If  the  doctrine 
of  the  Angel-Messiah  was  the  starting-point  of  the 
gnosis,  and  if  Jesus  has  not  recognised  the  doctrine  of 
the  Angel-Messiah,  than  he  must  be  regarded  as  having 
opposed  the  gnosis,  which  was  supposed  to  have  been 
revealed  by  the  Angel-Messiah.  From  this  it  follows, 
that  if  Jesus  made  known  mysteries  to  his  disciples, 
though  he  spoke  to  the  people  only  in  parables, 
suggesting  but  not  defining  the  truth,  the  *  mysteries  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,'  made  known  by  him  to  the 
Twelve  only,  cannot  have  referred  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Angel-Messiah.  The  silence  on  this  doctrine  in  all 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  possibly  written  before 
the  Exile,  and  in  the  first  three  Gospels,  leaves  no  doubt 
as  to  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  the  Essenic  gnosis,  even  to 
that  form  of  it  which  was  preached  by  Paul  and  Apollos. 
The  Booh  of  Daniel. — We  regard  as  proved  that  this 
Scripture,  as  transmitted  to  us,  was  not  completed 
before  the  times  of  the  Maccabees,  probably  in  B.C.  164, 
whose  allies,  the  Assida3ans,  we  have  connected  with  the 
Essenes  and  thus  with  the  Eechabites,  who  were  ex- 
ported with  other  Israelites  to  Babylon.  The  Scriptures 
distinguish  two  Daniels,  if  not  three:  the  Daniel  to 
whom  Ezechiel  refers  at  the  time  when  Jerusalem  was 
besieged  (588—584) ;  the  prophet  Daniel  who  was  ex- 
ported to  Babylon ;  and  Daniel  the  priest  of  the  line 
of  Ithamar,  who  in  515  signed  the  covenant  at  Jerusa- 
lem.1 But  if  the  mission  of  Ezra  took  place  in  the  reign 
of  the  '  Artaxerxus  '  Darius  Hystaspes,  Daniel  the  priest 
can  have  been  identical  with  Daniel  the  prophet.  This 
identity  is  asserted  by  the  Septuagint  and  by  the  Moham- 
medan tradition,  according  to  which  Daniel  the  prophet 
returned  to  Judaea,  and  it  is  indirectly  implied  by  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  in  which  the  three  companions  of  Daniel 

1  The  Ghrmology  of  the  Bible,  61-6G. 


284  THE    GNOSIS. 

are  mentioned  among  those  who  returned  to  Jerusalem. 
Indeed,  they  could  be  all  four  alive  in  520  if  they  had 
been  exported  to  Babylon  in  588,  or  even  in  the  year 
608,  the  third  year  of  Jehoiakim.  Then  no  siege  of  Jeru- 
salem by  Nebucadnezar,  whether  Crownprince  or  King, 
can  be  proved  to  have  taken  place,  whilst  statements 
in  the  Book  of  Jeremiah  seem  to  exclude  the  possibility 
of  such  a  siege.1 

Daniel  the  prophet  was  exported  to  Babylonia  con- 
temporaneously with  the  Eechabites,  who  shared  the 
captivity  of  the  Hebrews,  according  to  the  super- 
scription of  the  71st  Psalm  in  the  Septuagint  version, 
where  the  Psalm  is  designated  as  dedicated  to  David  of 
(by)  the  sons  of  Jonadab  *'  the  first  of  the  captives.' 
The  Targum  confirms  this.  These  Eechabites  or  Kenites, 
who  had  declared  to  Jeremiah  that  they  had  always 
been  strangers  or  non-Hebrews  in  Israel,  and  to  whom 
a  priesthood  for  ever  had  been  promised,  we  have  tried 
to  connect  with  the  Medo-Chalda3ans,  the  Chasdim  or 
conquerors,  who  conquered  Mesoj)otamia  about  500 
years  before  Abraham's  birth.  It  is  in  the  language 
and  wisdom  of  these  Iranian  Chalda3ans,  whom  the 
Book  of  Daniel  identifies  with  the  Magi,  or  priests  of 
the  Medes,  that  young  Daniel  was  brought  up.  The 
highly  probable  connection  of  Eechabites  and  Essenes, 
if  not  their  identity,  increases  the  importance  of  the 
probable  non-Hebrew  and  Davidic  descent  of  Daniel  the 
prophet,  who  bore  the  name  of  David's  second  son, 
of  his  initiation,  after  three  years  of  ascetic  discipline, 
into  the  mysteries  of  the  Chaldeans  or  Magi,  and  of  his 
being  set  over  all  the  wise  men  of  Babylon.  The  con- 
nection between  Daniel  and  the  Magi,  and  between 
Essenian  and  Magian  rites  renders  it  highly  probable 
that  the  Eechabites,  Assidasans  and  Essenes  after  the 
Captivity    transmitted    the  Eastern    wisdom    of  which 

1  Jer.  xxxvi.  1,  9,  29;  comp.  xxv.  1,  2,  and  our  further  remarks. 


SEVEN   AXGELS.  285 

Daniel  had  been  the  principal  organ  during  the  Cap- 
tivity. This  connection  of  Daniel  with  the  Essenes  is  con- 
firmed by  the  doctrinal  contents  of  the  Book  of  Daniel. 

We  saw  that  the  Essenes  must  at  all  times  have 
expected  an  Angel-Messiah,  which  doctrine,  contained 
in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  cannot  be  proved  by  any  ancient 
Scripture  to  have  prevailed  in  Israel.  As  presumably 
among  the  Essenes,  so  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  Ave  find  a 
fully  developed  doctrine  of  Angels,  of  which  there  is  no 
trace  in  Scriptures  possibly  composed  before  the  Exile. 
The  world  of  Angels,  which  the  Essenes  and  all  Gnostics 
separated  by  a  great  gulf  from  the  material  or  terres- 
trial world,  is  presided  over  by  a  not  stated  number  of 
watchers  or  saints,  whose  decrees  are  those  of  God.  As 
there  are  seven  archangels  in  the  Book  of  Tobiah,  so 
we  may  assume  a  similar  number  in  the  Book  of  Daniel, 
although  only  Gabriel  and  Michael  are  named.  Thus 
we  are  led  to  connect  the  chief  angels  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel  with  the  seven  watchers  or  Amshaspands  of  the 
Persians.  The  name  Gabriel  means  '  man  of  God,'  and 
his  office  is  to  be  God's  representative,  just  as  Serosh 
was  the  vicar  of  Ormuzd,  taking  his  place  as  the  first 
of  the  seven  Amshaspands,  probably  because  the  God 
of  light  takes  himself  no  part  in  the  fight  against  the 
God  of  darkness.  In  the  New  Testament  Gabriel  an- 
nounces the  Messiah.1 

Daniel's  recorded  vision  about  the  universal  rule  of 
a  celestial  or  Angel-Messiah  following  upon  four  succes- 
sive Empires,  symbolised  by  beasts,  cannot  be  entirely 
separated  from  the  knowledge  which  Daniel  had 
acquired  by  his  initiation  in  Chaldaean  wisdom.  The 
Medo-Chaldees  or  Magi  over  whom  Daniel  was  placed, 
represented  the  Iranian  tradition  as  promulgated  in  the 
West,  in  part  perhaps  ever  since  the  Median  conquest 
of  Babylon  in  pre-Abrahamitic   times.     We  saw  that 

1  Dan.  iv.  14,  21 ;  vii. ;  Tob.  xii.  15 ;  Luke  i.  19,  26. 


286  THE    GNOSIS. 

these  Medes  probably  introduced  into  the  West  the  very 
ancient  Eastern  tradition  of  an  Angel-Messiah  and  vicar 
of  God,  since  the  ancient  Babylonians  knew  about  a 
Divine  Messenger  who  would  distribute  good  among 
men,  as  his  name  Silik-mulu-dug  implies.  Like  the  fire- 
bringer  Agni-Matarisvan  of  the  ancient  Indians,  this 
Mesopotamian  Angel-Messiah  was  connected  with  the 
fire-sticks.  We  may  safely  assume,  that  the  rule  of 
this  Messiah  was  by  the  Medo-Chalclseans  of  Mesopo- 
tamia connected,  if  not  identified,  with  the  rule  of  the 
Divine  Messenger  and  mediator  Sraosha  or  Serosh, 
which  was  expected  to  follow  on  Ormuzd's  rule  of  3,000 
years  and  Ahriman's  rule  of  3,000  years,  as  the  last 
1,000  years,  thus  concluding  the  7,000  years. 

The  doctrine  of  this  Messianic  Millennium  expected 
to  be  brought  about  by  a  celestial  messenger,  and  which 
would  lead  to  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  has  been 
more  fully  described  and  possibly  developed  in  the 
Bundehesh  and  other  writings  of  the  time  of  the  Sassa- 
nides,  long  after  B.C.  216.  The  Iranian  traditions  were 
recast  under  the  Sassanides,  as  this  had  been  done  much 
earlier  by  Ezra  with  the  Hebrew  traditions.  In  both 
cases  it  would  be  as  unreasonable  to  attempt  to  draw  a 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  old  and  the  new,  as  to 
deny  the  probability  of  a  secret  tradition  as  the  source 
of  such  development.  But  as  regards  the  Iranian  sym- 
bolism of  the  alternate  rule  of  light  and  darkness,  of 
Ormuzd,  Oromasdes  or  Ahura-Masda,  and  of  Ahriman, 
Areimanios  or  Angromainjus,  we  hope  to  have  proved 
by  an  astronomical  interpretation,  and  thus  by  a  locali- 
sation of  this  and  of  similar  myths,  that  these  Eastern 
conceptions  are  more  ancient  than  the  commencement 
of  Egyptian  history.1 

The  parallel  between  Serosh  the  vicar  of  Ormuzd, 
and   Eros  the  vicar   of  Zeus,  confirms   the  identity  of 

1  See  Chapter  ITT,  54  f.  ;  Die  Plejaden,  48-85. 


THE    FOUR    KINGDOMS   or    EASTERN   TRADITION.         287 

Zeus  and  Ormuzd,  first  observed  by  Eudoxus,  and  Aris- 
toteles,  born  B.C.  384.  We  may  now  safely  assert,  that 
the  Magian  tradition  transmitted  by  Theopompus  of 
Chios,  born  about  B.C.  378,  is  more  ancient  than  the 
time  of  Nebucadnezar,  according  to  which  a  Millennium 
will  precede  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  Directly 
connected  with  the  statements  of  Theopompus  are  those 
in  the  Bundehesh  and  other  writings,  according  to 
which  the  time  of  the  resurrection  will  be  preceded  by 
four  cosmical  periods,  which  are  also  designated  as 
four  .kingdoms  of  gold,  silver,  steel,  and  iron. 

In  the  Bahman  Yesht,  first  cited  by  Spiegel,  it  is 
written :  'As  revealed  in  the  Ctutgar :  Zertusht  de- 
manded from  Ormuzd  immortality ;  then  Ormuzd 
showed  to  Zertusht  the  omniscient  wisdom  ;  he  then 
saw  a  tree  with  such  a  root,  that  four  trees  had  sprung 
up  from  it,  a  golden  one,  a  silver  one,  one  of  steel,  and 
one  of  iron.'  Zoroaster  is  then  told  by  revelation,  that 
the  tree  with  one  root,  the  tree  of  knowledge,  *  is  the 
world,'  and  that  the  four  trees  are  '  the  four  times  that 
shall  come.'  The  golden  time  is  that  of  Zoroaster  (or  of 
king  Vistaspa) ;  the  silver  tree  is  the  kingdom  of  Arta- 
shir  ;  that  of  steel,  the  kingdom  of  the  son  of  Kobat ; 
the  iron  tree  is  the  wicked  dominion  of  the  Devs,  or 
evil  spirits.  Then  comes  the  kingdom  of  Serosh,  Srao- 
sha,  Sraoshyank,  literally  '  the  helper,'  or  Saviour,  also 
called  the  Holy  One  and  the  Victorious.  According  to 
later  traditions  several  prophets  were  to  be  his  forerun- 
ners. With  this  tradition  Spiegel  has  connected,  on 
the  strength  of  remarkable  parallels  which  cannot  be 
casual,  the  Buddhist  expectation,  still  maintained,  of 
another  Buddha,  of  Maitreya,  the  son  of  love  (like 
Eros)  who  shall  take  up  the  lost  thread  of  Buddha's 
doctrine,  who  shall  take  of  the  words  of  Buddha  and 
make  known  the  truth.1     Thus  it  is  indirectly  proved 

1  Diop-.  Laert.  prooem.  8  ;    Spiegel,  Zeitschrift  d.  M,   G.  iii.  467 ;  vi. 


288  THE   GNOSIS. 

that  the  Iranian  symbolism  and  prophecy  of  four 
Empires  preceding  the  Messianic  Millennium  is  more 
ancient  than  Gautama-Buddha  and  his  contemporary 
Cyrus.1 

Whether  the  prophet  Daniel  returned  to  Judaea  or 
not,  the  evidently  parallel  organisation  of  the  Eabbis 
and  their  three  classes  with  the  Magi  and  their  three 
classes,   as  existing  when  Daniel  was  set  over  them, 
renders  it  almost  certain,  that  the  Magian    tradition 
about  a  future  Angel-Messiah  and  his  rule  of  a  thousand 
years  was  introduced  by  some  of  the  returning  Jews 
into  Palestine.     We  have  shown  in  another  place  that 
the  Chronology  of  the  Bible  has  been  connected,  per- 
haps by  Ezra,  with  a  scheme  of  7,000  years,  ending  with 
the  Messianic  Millennium.     The  year  of  the  destruction 
of  the  temple  by  Nebucadnezar's  general,  in  B.C.    586, 
was  made   the  starting-point  of  the  second  cycle  of  70 
jubilees  or  3,500  years,  which  two  periods  made  up  the 
7,000  years,  supposed  to  have  been  decreed  as  the  limi- 
tation of  the  earth's  existence.  According  to  this  scheme, 
the  first  70  jubilees  commenced  with  the  creation  of 
Adam,  seventy  years   after  the  creation  of  heaven  and 
earth,  and  they  ended   B.C.  586.     The  fulfilment  of  se- 
venty years'  exile,  recorded  as  a  prophecy  of  Jeremiah, 
had    been    accurately  accomplished  in  the  year   516, 
when  the  Second  Temple  was  consecrated,  if  they  were 
reckoned   from   the   destruction  of  the  Temple  in  586. 
But  this  fulfilment  had  been  ushered  in  by  the  permis- 
sion to  return   in   536,  in   the  fiftieth  or  jubilee  year. 

78  f. ;    Acad,  der   Wissen.  vi.  89  f. ;  Avesta,    32-38,  244 ;  Duncker,  I  c. 

ii.  369  f. ;  Delitzsch,  in  Herzog,  I.  c.  *  Daniel.' 

1  Professor  Beal  points  out  the  coincidence  in  the  epithets  '  the  man 
greatly  beloved,'  or  '  much  beloved '  (literally  coveted)  in  Dan.  ix.  23  ;  x.  11, 
19,  with  Piyattissa's  (Priyadassi  or  Priyadosa),  '  the  beloved.'  Mr.  Thomas 
(I.  c.  54)  dwells  on  the  importance  of  the  Bhabra  Inscription  rejecting  the 
title  still  used  in  earlier  inscriptions  of  Asoka :  Devanampiyo  or  '  beloved  of 
the  gods.'  If  Buddha  prayed  to  the  highest  Spirit,  Isvara  Deva,  or  to 
Abidha,  the  Sun  God,  Asoka  after  his  conversion  from  Jainism  to  Buddhism 
would  object  to  tbis  polytheistic  title  on  that  ground. 


NEBUCADNEZAR  S    DREAM.  280 

Seventy  years  were  enlarged  to  a  second  set  of  seventy 
jubilees,  or  3,500  years,  from  B.C.  586  to  1914  a.d., 
the  last  twenty  jubilees  forming  a  parallel  to  the  last 
twenty  years  of  Jeremiah's  seventy  years.  Thus  the 
20x50  years,  the  Millennium,  was  placed  a.d.  1914- 
2914. l  This  scheme  cannot  have  been  invented  before 
B.C.  516.  We  shall  see  that  the  Eevelation  of  '  John  ' 
supplements  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  refers  to  the  Mil- 
lennium. 

The  Book  of  Daniel  follows  the  oriental  tradition 
about  the  four  monarchies,  in  placing  the  kingdom 
of  the  celestial  Messiah  in  the  position  of  that  of  Serosh, 
the  first  of  seven  angels,  and  vicar  of  the  highest  God. 
This  Iranian  scheme  is  reproduced  in  various  forms 
in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  where  the  four  eras  are  applied 
to  that  of  four  successive  kingdoms,  beginning  with  that 
of  Nebucadnezar  and  ending  with  that  of  Alexander, 
upon  which  the  Messianic  kingdom  was  expected  to 
follow.  The  first  form  in  which  the  Eastern  tradition 
has  been  moulded,  by  revelation  or  not,  is  a  dream 
which  Nebucadnezar  is  said  to  have  had,  and  which 
Daniel  was  able  to  relate  as  if  he  himself  had  dreamt 
it.  The  king  had  seen  a  great  image,  the  head  of 
which  was  gold  (Nebucadnezar),  breast  and  arms  of 
silver  (probably  the  Mede),  belly  and  thighs  of  brass 
(the  Persian),  legs  of  iron,  but  the  feet  part  of  iron  part 
of  clay.  This  last,  or  Greek,  kingdom  was  to  be  divided, 
partly  strong  partly  broken,  'and  its  parts  shall  not 
cleave  together.'  The  king  had  also  seen  that  a  stone, 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands,  smote  the 
image,  broke  it  in  pieces,  and  became  a  great  mountain. 
This  is  the  kingdom  which  the  God  of  heaven  shall  set 
up,  and  which  shall  never  be  destroyed, 

In  another  form  the  same  events,  to  which  Chaldiean 
tradition,  as  well   as  Nebucadnezar 's    dream    referred, 

1    The  Chronology  of  the  Bible,  4-7. 

v 


290  THE    GNOSIS. 

was  symbolised  by  Daniel's  dream.  From  the  sea,  the 
symbol  of  the  Gentile  world,  four  great  beasts  came  up. 
The  first,  a  lion  with  eagle's  wings,  known  to  us  by 
Mesopotamian  representations,  is  again  the  kingdom  of 
Nebucadnezar.  The  second  beast,  like  a  bear,  is  the 
Median  kingdom  ;  the  three  ribs  in  its  mouth  seem  to  be 
the  three  cities  on  the  Tigris  which  the  Medes  captured. 
The  beast  is  described  as  standing  upright  on  one  side 
only,  for  before  this  kingdom  can  be  firmly  set  up,  a 
third  beast,  a  leopard  arises,  with  four  wings  and  four 
heads,  that  is,  the  Persian  kingdom,  to  which  dominion 
was  given.  The  four  heads  are  four  kings,  enumerated  in 
the  eleventh  chapter.  The  fourth  beast,  more  terrible 
than  the  others,  with  iron  teeth,  devouring,  breaking  in 
pieces  and  stamping  the  residue  with  the  feet  of  it,  and 
having  ten  horns,  is  the  Macedonian  kingdom,  with 
the  ten  Seleucidian  kings. 

Among  the  ten  horns  another  little  horn  came 
up,  before  whom  there  were  three  of  the  first  horns 
plucked  up  by  the  roots,  and  in  this  horn  were  eyes 
like  the  eyes  of  man,  and  a  mouth  speaking  great 
things.  This  little  horn  is  Antiochus  Epiphanes ;  and 
the  three  horns  plucked  up  by  him  are  his  three 
brothers :  Seleucus,  who  was  murdered ;  Heliodorus, 
who  was  expelled ;  and  Demetrius,  who  had  to  go 
to  Borne,  as  hostage,  instead  of  Antiochus.  He  spoke 
great  words  against  the  Most  High,  and  wore  out  his 
saints,  and  intended  to  change  times  and  laws.  For 
three  years  and- a  half  the  saints  were  given  into  his 
hand  ;  but  then  came  the  judgment  by  the  Ancient  of 
Days,  the  beast  was  slain,  his  body  destroyed  and  given 
to  the  burning  flame.  His  dominion  was  taken  away, 
like  that  of  his  predecessors,  and  a  universal  and  ever- 
lasting dominion  was  given  to  '  One  like  a  son  of  man,' 
who  was  brought  on  the  clouds  of  heaven  before  God, 
and  who  by  the  interpreting  angel  is  implied  to  be  the 
representative  of  '  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most 


THE    SEVENTY    WEEKS.  201 

High,'  to  whom,  as  to  the  Messiah,  the  kingdom  under 
the  whole  heaven,  an  everlasting  kingdom,  shall  be  given. 

Again,  in  a  third  form,  the  Messianic  kingdom  is 
described  which  was  expected  to  follow  upon  Antiochus 
Epiphanes.  The  eighth  chapter  describes  the  Medo- 
Persian  kingdom  in  the  figure  of  a  ram,  with  two  horns, 
of  which  one  was  higher  than  the  other  and  came  up 
last.  The  ram,  having  pushed  westward  and  northward 
and  southward,  is  attacked  by  a  he-goat,  having  a  notable 
horn  between  his  eyes,  the  Macedonian  kingdom.  This 
great  horn,  however,  was  broken,  after  Alexander's 
death,  when  four  notable  horns  towards  the  four  winds 
of  heaven  took  its  place,  that  is,  the  four  principal 
dominions  which  arose  from  Alexander's  empire.  Out 
of  one  of  these  four  horns  a  little  horn  arose,  a  king  of 
fierce  countenance,  who  shall  destroy  many  also  of  the 
holy  people.  But  after  that  he  shall  have  prevented 
the  daily  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  3,500  times, 
that  is,  after  1,150  days,  or  three  and  a  half  years,  the 
sanctuary  shall  be  cleansed  and  the  transgression  of 
desolation  ended.1 

The  ninth  chapter  refers  to  the  same  times  and 
circumstances.  The  novelty  lies  in  this,  that  the 
seventy  years  of  Jeremiah,  enlarged  into  seventy 
weeks,  or  490  years,  are  incorrectly  implied  to  end 
with  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  '  Seventy  weeks  are  de- 
termined upon  thy  people  and  upon  thy  holy  city, 
until  the  transgression  shall  be  finished,  and  the  measure 
of  sins  shall  be  filled,  until  iniquity  shall  be  recon- 
ciled, and  everlasting  righteousness  shall  be  brought, 
until  prophecy  and  prophet  shall  be  sealed,  and  a  Most- 
Holy  be  anointed.  And  thou  must  know  and  under- 
stand :  From  the  going  forth  of  the  commandment  to 
restore  and  to  build  Jerusalem  unto  an  Anointed,  a 
Prince,  are  seven  weeks.     And  during  threescore  and 

1  Bunsen's  Bibelwcrk,  iii.  670-G73  ;  Iloltzmann,  in  Geschichtc  des  Vvlhes 
Israel,  101-109. 

u  2 


292  THE    GNOSIS. 

two  weeks  the  city  shall  be  restored  and  built  with 
street  and  wall,  although  in  distressed  times.  And 
after  the  threescore  and  two  weeks  shall  an  An- 
ointed be  cut  off,  and  have  no  one.  And  over  the  city 
and  the  sanctuary  shall  bring  destruction  the  people  of 
a  Prince,  who  cometh  and  findeth  his  end  on  (the 
march  of)  the  overflooding  host ;  yet  unto  the  end  war 
continues,  judgment  and  desolation.  And  he  shall 
make  a  strong  covenant  with  many  for  one  week ;  and 
during  the  half  week  he  shall  cause  the  sacrifice  and 
oblation  to  cease  ;  and  on  the  pinnacle  are  seen  abomin- 
ations, terrible  things,  but  only  until  destruction  and 
judgment  are  poured  on  the  horrors.' 

If  the  seventy  weeks  are  considered  to  be  490  years, 
the  first  seven  weeks  might  be  calculated  as  reaching" 
to  Cyrus.  But  every  attempt  has  failed  to  let  the 
sixty-two  weeks,  or  434  years,  reach  to  the  clearly 
implied  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  who,  after  the 
murder  of  Seleucus  IV.  Philopator,  ascended  the  throne 
in  176-170,  and  reigned  seven  years,  or  one  week. 
Curiously  enough,  these  434  years,  if  reckoned  back 
from  176-175  reach  to  609,  or  to  the  third  year  of 
Jehoiakim  (609-608),  when  Daniel  is  said  to  have  been 
exported.1  They  could  be  made  to  reach  the  fourth 
year  of  that  king  (608-607),  when  the  commandment  or 
Jeremiah's  prophecy  went  forth.  But  accordingly  the 
first  seven  weeks  would  have  commenced  in  658,  or 
twenty-nine  years  before  the  thirteenth  of  Josiah,  when 
to  Jeremiah,  then  '  young,'  came  the  word  of  the  Lord  for 
the  first  time.  It  is  not  necessary  to  add,  that  the  490 
years  cannot  possibly  bridge  over  the  time  from  the 
commandment  to  restore  and  build  Jerusalem  to  any 
possible  year  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ.2 

1  For  the  dates,  see  The  Chronology  of  the  Bible.  It  is  not  probable  that 
because  of  the  above  reckoning-  of  62  weeks  the  third  year  of  Jehoiakim, 
B.C.  608,  instead  of  the  probable  year  588,  is  mentioned  as  the  time  when 
Nebucadnezar  besieged  Jerusalem. 

About  the  late  Mr.  Bosanquet's  scheme  of  three  successive  periods  of 


ANTIOCHUS    EPIPHANES.  293 

The  same  subject,  the  Messianic  kingdom  ushered  in 
by  political  events  ending  with  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  is 
once  more  referred  to  in  the  last  three  chapters  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel.  An  angel  appears  to  him,  unseen  by 
his  companions,  and  reveals  to  him  what  shall  befall 
Israel  in  the  latter  days.  The  same  or  another  angel 
formed  '  in  the  similitude  of  the  sons  of  men,'  refers  with 
much  detail  to  the  combats  between  the  Ptolemies  and 
the  Seleucidae.  Among  the  latter  great  prominence  is 
given  to  Antiochus  Epiphanes, '  a  detestable  person,  not 
intended  for  the  dignity  of  the  kingdom,  and  who  shall 
come  unexpectedly.'  He  gains  victories  over  the 
Egyptians ;  but  ships  from  Chittim,  containing  the 
Roman  envoy  Popilius  Lamas,  who  demands  the  restora- 
tion of  the  conquered  land,  oblige  him  to  return. 
Now  he  turns  against  the  holy  covenant,  pollutes  the 
sanctuary,  '  places  the  desolation  that  maketh  desolate,' 
he  takes  away  the  daily  sacrifice,  he  magnifies  himself 
above  every  other  god.  Three  years  and  a  half  this 
has  to  be  endured.  But  '  the  people  that  do  know 
their  God  '  (the  Maccabees)  will  manfully  stand  up  '  and 
do  exploits.'  At  last  Antiochus  has  to  yield  to  the 
kings  of  the  South  and  North,  and  the  Divine  judgment 
follows.1 

The  Book  of  Daniel  helps  us  to  bridge  over  the 
time  from  the  exportation  to  Babylon  to  the  rise  of 
the  Maccabees.  Their  allies,  the  Assidseans,  we  have 
sufficient  reason  to  connect,  if  not  identify,  with  the 
Essenes,  and  these  with  the  Rechabites  who  were 
transported  by  Nebucadnezar  to  Babylon.  The  Macca- 
bees and  Assidasans  (Essenes)  may  be  presumed  to  have 
expected  the  kingdom  of  the  Angel-Messiah  after  the 
fall  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  It  is  this  Essenic  ex- 
pectation which  has  been  recorded  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel. 

seventy  weeks  ending  with  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  see   Transactions  of 
Bihlical  Archceology ,  vol.  vi. 

1  For  a  detailed  explanation,  see  Holtzmann,  /.  c. 


294  THE    GNOSIS. 

When  it  was  seen  that  after  the  death  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  that  is,  after  the  end  to  which  all  '  pro- 
phecies '  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  so  clearly  point,  the  long- 
expected  kingdom  of  the  Angel-Messiah  did  not  come, 
the  expectation  was  carried  on  by  a  prolongation  of  the 
Danielic  times.  Almost  fifty  years  before  a.d.  6,  when 
Judrea  had  become  a  Eoman  province,  a  new  interpreta- 
tion of  the  four  monarchies  preceding  the  Messianic 
Millennium  was  set  on  foot.  The  four  kingdoms  were 
now  explained  in  the  oracle  of  the  Jewish  Sibyl,  then  in 
the  Fourth  Book  of  Esclras,  and  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas 
as  the  Babylonian,  the  Medo-Persian,  the  Greek,  and  the 
Eoman  kingdoms.  Thus  the  ground  was  prepared  for 
the  new  conception  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Angel-Messiah 
of  the  vision  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  first 
applied  to  Jesus  in  the  Eevelation  of  '  John '  though 
without  direct  reference  to  the  four  kingdoms  preceding 
his  coining. 

We  come  to  the  following  conclusions  about  the 
Book  of  Daniel.  Initiated  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Chaldseans  or  Magi,  Daniel  knew  of  the  scheme,  recorded 
to  have  been  revealed  to  Zoroaster,  about  four  eras  and 
kingdoms,  after  which  should  be  established  on  earth 
the  heavenly  kingdom  of  the  Saviour  Serosh,  '  the  Holy 
One,'  the  Angel-Messiah.  If  Nebucadnezar  really  had 
the  dream  about  the  image,  and  if  Daniel  explained  it 
to  him  and  had  similar  visions  as  recorded,  they  were 
both  imbued  with  the  sense  that  the  Angel-Messiah 
must  come,  but  that  his  Millennium  must  be  preceded 
by  a  new  cycle  of  four  monarchies,  of  which  that  of 
Nebucadnezar,  corresponding  to  that  of  Zoroaster  and 
King  Vistaspa,  was  the  first.  Assuming,  for  the  sake  of 
argument,  that  the  entire  Book  of  Daniel  as  we  possess 
it,  was  not  completed  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  and 
that  it  is  not  a  'prophecy  after  the  event,'  we  might  be 
led  further  to  assume  that  Daniel  referred  the  little 
horn  to  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  that  moreover  he, 


1)11)    DANIEL    FORETELL    FUTURE    EVENTS?  295 

like  the  Maccabees  of  that  time,  expected  the  Aneel- 
Messiah  to  come  after  the  death  of  this  enemy  of  c  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High.' 

But  the  connection  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  with  the 
Iranian  expectation  of  four  monarchies  followed  by  the 
celestial  kingdom  cannot  possibly  be  denied,  nor  the  com- 
position, or  at  least  the  completion,  of  this  book  in  Macca- 
bean  times.  Yet  it  may  be  held,  that  Daniel  did  not  see 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  that  he  did  not  share  the  expecta- 
tion of  the  Maccabees  about  the  then  coming  Messiah, 
and  that  the  prophet  was  enabled  to  see  after  the  Greek 
empire,  the  Eoman  empire  as  the  fourth,  and  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  as  the  real  Serosh  or  Angel-Messiah,  whose 
second  coming  or  return  in  glory,  to  establish  a  terrestrial 
kingdom,  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  would  be 
preceded  by  Nero  or  by  Mohammed  as  the  little  horn. 

We  will  only  observe  here,  that  on  this  latter  assump- 
tion the  Essenic  expectation  of  an  Angel-Messiah  must 
have  been  sanctioned  by  Jesus.  If  so,  the  silence  of  the 
three  first  Gospels  on  this  all-important  point  remains 
inexplicable,  and  Paul,  as  well  as  the  authors  of  the 
Eevelation  of  '  John  '  and  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  must  be 
regarded  as  the  first  full  revealers  of '  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus.' 

Maccabean  Psalms.  Some  of  the  Psalms,  possibly 
all  after  the  seventy-fourth,  seem  to  date  from  the  Mac- 
cabean time.  This  is  very  generally  regarded  as  certain 
with  regard  to  the  seventy-third  and  seventy-fourth 
Psalms  ;  whilst  some  will  see  in  the  second  Psalm  a 
hidden  reference  to  the  time  when,  as  during  the  reign 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the  coming  of  the  Messiah 
was  supposed  to  be  near.  The  contents,  the  language, 
and  the  form  of  several  Psalms  transmitted  to  us  are 
surprisingly  similar  to  the  collection  entitled  '  Psalms 
of  Solomon,'  which  were  probably  composed  in  the 
year  B.C.  47. 

The  Booh  Ecclesiasticus,  or  Jesus-Sirach,  we  have  in 


200  THE    GNOSIS. 

another  place  tried  to  connect,  as  'Sirach  of  Jerusalem,' 
with  the  Highpriest  Seraiah  in  the  time  of  Nebucadne- 
zar's  siege,  as  whose  son  or  grandson  the  author  seems 
to  describe  himself  in  the  Appendix  to  the  fiftieth 
chapter.  According  to  the  Alexandrian  Codex  and 
several  of  the  most  ancient  manuscripts  the  Highpriest 
Seraiah  is  stated  to  have  been  the  son  of  Eleasar  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  in  the  Talmud  the  author  of  this  work  is 
called  Jehoshua,  ben  Sira,  ben  Elieser.  Now,  Elieser 
or  Eleazar  is  only  another  form  of  Azariah,  and  this 
was  the  name  of  the  father  and  predecessor  of  the  High- 
priest Seraiah  who  was  murdered  at  Biblah  in  588.  His 
son  was  called  Jehozadak,  and  his  grandson  was  the 
Highpriest  Joshua,  who  must  have  known  Daniel  the 
prophet,  if  the  latter  was  identical  with  Daniel  the  Priest.' 
As  this  Joshua  called  himself  son  of  Seraiah,  or  ben  Sira, 
though  only  his  grandson,  so  Ecclesiasticus,  originally 
written  in  Hebrew,  may  have  been  composed  and  possibly 
translated  by  a  descendant  of  the  Highpriest,  since  the 
author  calls  himself  Jesus  or  Joshua,  '  son  of  Sirach  of 
Jerusalem.'  It  is  immaterial,  whether  the  translation 
was  made  during  the  reign  of  an  earlier  or  of  a  later 
Ptolemy.1 

The  original  title  was  probabty  '  the  Wisdom  of 
Sirach,'  later  called  '  Proverbs  of  ben  Sira.'  The  con- 
nection of  the  contents  of  this  book  with  the  last  High- 
priest  before  the  Captivity,  if  accepted,  would  be  a 
proof  of  the  existence  of  a  secret  tradition,  of  which 
the  Highpriests  were  the  highest  organs. 

The  absence  in  this  book  of  every  allusion  to  an 
expected  Messiah  is  best  explained  by  the  assumption, 
that  according  to  the  secret  Jewish  tradition,  hidden 
wisdom,  or  Apocrypha,  partially  revealed  by  this  book, 
an  Angel-Messiah  was  expected.  Here  there  is  yet  no 
trace  of  a  personification  of  the  Word  of  God  or  Wisdom 

1  Einheit  der  Iteliyionen,  i.  466  f. 


THE   SIBYL.  207 

of  God,  the  organ  of  sanctification,  but  not  the  organ  of 
immortality.  Yet  Wisdom,  coming  from  the  Lord,  and 
eternally  with  Him,  raises  her  sons,  those  who  love  her 
as  *  the  life,'  and  are  loved  by  the  Lord.  He  created 
her  from  '  the  beginning,'  and  promised  her  a  '  posses- 
sion '  in  Israel,  where  she  served  before  him  in  the 
tabernacle.     A  similar  notion  is  expressed  in  Proverbs. 

Essenic-Buddhistic,  especially  Therapeutic,  is  the 
absence  of  all  reference  to  bloody  sacrifices,  although 
the  incense-offerings,  of  Moses  are  mentioned;  so  are 
the  injunctions  referring  to  meals,  to  mercantile  specu- 
lations, to  the  furthering  of  strict  morality  and  thus  of 
social  progress  ;  the  emphasizing  of  the  life  of  the  soul, 
the  immortality  of  the  individual ;  equality  of  all  men, 
which  is  the  basis  of  community  of  goods  ;  importance 
of  the  truth  and  generally  of  moral  duties,  indepen- 
dently of  mere  outward  works,  partly  instead  of  the 
latter  ;  prohibition  of  slavery,  and  the  recommendation 
of  hopeful  submission. 

The  Book  of  Wisdom  we  have  already  considered  as 
the  almost  certain  work  of  Philo,  and  in  connection 
with  the  introduction  of  Essenic  doctrines  into  the 
Septuagint 

The  Books  of  the  Sibyl  are  written  at  different  times 
in  Hebrew.  The  third  book  is  composed  B.C.  140  by 
an  Alexandrian  Jew,  possibly  a  Therapeut,  and  the 
fourth  book  by  a  Jew  in  a.d.  79,  avIio  expects  the  return 
of  Nero.  About  B.C.  170  the  Jewish  Alexandrian  Aris- 
tobulus  had  composed  a  Jewish  version  of  an  Orphic 
Hymn,  and  so  a  Jewish  Alexandrian  work  was  attributed 
to  the  Ionian  Phocylicles  of  Miletus  (about  B.C.  540). 
These  were  no  actual  forgeries,  since  the  Essene  stood 
in  connection  with  Ionic  and  with  Orphic  tradition. 
The  prophecies  of  women,  called  gilryIs_probably_jfter 
the  Ionic  word  for  the  wih[  of  God,  have  been  traced 
from  Asia  Minor  toUaly",  from  Cyme,  where  they  were 
collected  in  the  seventli  century,  to  Cuma3  and  thus  to 


298  THE    GNOSIS. 

Borne.1  The  third  book  of  the  Sibyl  occupies  the 
standpoint  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  is  the  earliest 
Scripture  known  to  us  in  which  the  Messianic  kingdom 
is  placed  after  the  Eoman  empire.  The  Messiah  is 
identified  with  Simon  the  Maccabee.  From  the  land 
of  the  sun  God  will  send  a  King,  as  he  once  sent  Cyrus 
the  Anointed  or  Messiah.  He  will  promulgate  over 
all  the  earth  peace  and  the  Israelitic  covenant,  by  re- 
ceiving the  Pious  or  Saints.  These  may  have  referred 
especially  to  the  Pious  of  the  Maccabees  and  the  Saints 
of  the  Essenes,  possibly  '  the  Saints  of  the  Most  High  ' 
in  the  Book  of  Daniel.  This  Messianic  kingdom,  which 
is  to  go  forth  from  Jerusalem,  will  be  preceded  by  an 
attack  of  Gentiles  on  the  city  and  by  signs  in  heaven. 
The  supposition  of  a  double  Messianic  personality,  a 
celestial  and  a  terrestrial  one,  though  not  excluded,  is 
not  in  any  way  suggested. 

The  Book  of  Enoch,  who  is  called  'the  seer'  has  been 
traced  to  Northern  Galilee  and  to  the  years  B.C.  130- 
100,  although  some  passages  may  have  been  interpolated 
after  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.2  It  was  ori- 
ginally written  in  Hebrew,  and  several  Hebrew  frag- 
ments have  been  traced.3  The  Essenic  and  especially 
Therapeutic  contents  of  the  book  are  incontestable.  No 
specifically  Pharisaic  principles  are  referred  to,  whilst 
the  Sadducees,  the  non-universalists,  are  designated  as 
enemies.  Especially  Essenic  are  the  injunctions  to  pray 
at  sun-rise,  not  to  swear,  to  estimate  highly  the  secret 
tradition,  deeper  knowledge,  or  Gnosis,  not  to  over-esti- 
mate the  value  of  Scripture,  thus  implying  that  it  must 
be  allegorically  interpreted ;  the  non-reference  to  bloody 
sacrifices,  and  a  fully  developed  doctrine  of  angels, 
headed  by  the  Angel  of  God  or  Angel-Messiah.     The 

1  Bernays,  comp.  Hilgenfeld,  I.  c.  167,  n.  4;  Duncker  /.  c.  iii.  190,  n.  3. 

2  A  later  date,  as  suggested  by  Volkmar,  would  not  affect  our  argument. 

3  Jellinek,  in  1).  Morgcnl.  Ges.  vii.  249,  designates  the  book  as  a  re- 
mainder of  Essenian  literature,  which  forms  the  introductory  history  of  the 
Cabbala,  or  secret  tradition  of  the  Jews. 


DULKARXAIM.  299 

Danielic  vision  of  One  like  a  son  of  man  is  interpreted 
to  refer  to  One  who  is  also  similar  to  Angels,  to  the 
Word  of  God  and  Son  of  God,  the  Lord  from  heaven, 
the  One  chosen  by  the  Lord  of  Spirits.  The  Messiah  is 
also  called  "Wisdom,  Spirit,  Grace,  Power  of  God  from 
the  beginning,  Name  of  God,  the  never  ceasing  light 
of  Sabaoth,  the  light  of  the  people  of  God,  of  the 
chosen  ones,  the  Son  of  God.  At  the  same  time  Mes- 
siah is  called  '  son  of  a  woman,'  probably  in  reference 
to  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  His  name  Messiah  was  named 
before  God  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  is 
known  to  the  righteous. 

In  harmony  with  Buddhistic  conceptions,  the  Angel- 
Messiah  is  described  as  coming  to  the  earth  in  order  to 
dwell  among  men,  but  not  having  found  a  dwelling 
place  he  returned  to  the  angels.  We  saw  that  Buddha's 
descent  is  figuratively  described  as  that  of  an  elephant, 
and  so  here  Messiah  is  described  as  coming  down  in 
the  form  of  a  white  bull  with  large  horns.  In  the  Book 
of  Daniel  the  two-horned  he-goat  refers,  not  to  Cyrus 
the  Messiah,  but  to  Alexander,  whom  the  Koran  de- 
signates as  Dulkarnaim  or  the  two-horned  One.1  Accord- 
ing to  the  Book  of  Enoch,  already  Adam  had  come  to 
earth  as  a  white  bull.  We  have  interpreted  the  bull- 
symboHsm  as  referring  to  the  celestial  bull,  to  the  con- 
stellation of  Taurus  with  the  Pleiades,  and  have  con- 
nected with  these  seven  stars  the  seven  Amshaspands 
and  seven  Buddhas.  Here  Enoch,  '  the  seventh  from 
Adam,'  as  if  the  seventh  Buddha,  is  identified  with  the 
Angel-Messiah,  that  is  with  the  One  like  a  son  of  man 
in  the  Danielic  vision.  Enoch's  terrestial  body  is  de- 
scribed as  melting  away,  and  his  spirit  was  transformed 
into  a  heavenly  body,  *  the  second  body,'  expected  after 
the  coming  of  Serosh.  This  is  a  parallel  to  Buddha's 
transformation  on  the  mount.  Enoch,  whose  translation 

1  Ashteroth-Karnaiin  (Gen.  xiv.  5)  refers  to  the  two-horned    A-Starte, 
(Tshtar,  Diana),  symbolised  by  the  bull ;  Die  Plejaden,  91  f.,  441, 


300  THE    GNOSIS. 

is  referred  to  in  Genesis,  was  regarded  as  the  seventh 
incarnation  of  the  An^el  of  God.  No  longer  after 
seventy  weeks,  but  after  seventy  undefined  epochs, 
Judaism  will  bring  about  the  promised  end.  Enoch,  or 
the  Messiah,  will  return,  the  general  resurrection  of  the 
dead  will  take  place,  and  then  the  Messiah  will  clothe 
the  righteous  with  '  garments  of  life.'  But  Messiah  will 
not  take  part  in  the  judgment  over  which  God  alone 
presides. 

The  Ascension  of  Moses,  written  about  the  year  of 
the  death  of  Herod  Agrippa  I.,  a.d.  44,  by  a  probably 
Roman  Jew,  and  is  known  to  us  in  a  later  interpolated 
edition.  Its  interest  lies  in  the  absence  of  every  trace  of 
Essenic  doctrine,  at  the  very  time  when  Peter  had  pro- 
bably founded  the  Church  at  Rome,  and  when  Paul,  about 
two  years  after  his  conversion  to  the  (Essenic)  faith 
of  Stephen,  had  not  yet  been  introduced  by  Barnabas 
to  the  Church  at  Antioch.  The  book  ignores  the  pre- 
Christian  Jewish  expectations  which  were  recorded  in 
the  Danielie  and  Maccabean  Scriptures,  in  the  Jewish 
Sibyl,  in  the  Apocrypha  of  the  Septuagint,  in  the  Book  of 
Enoch,  but  probably  not  already  then  in  the  Apocalypse 
of  Esdras.  This  development  of  doctrine,  which  we 
have  traced  to  an  Essenic  and  thus  to  an  oriental  source, 
formed  the  basis  of  the  Jewish  verbal  tradition,  later 
called  Cabbala, 

The  Zohar,  literally '  splendour '  or  '  glory,'  is  a  book 
which  we  may  here  consider,  although  we  know  it  only 
in  the  revised  form  in  which  it  was  published  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  By  eminent  Jewish  authorities  it  is 
regarded  as  the  universal  collection  of  the  Cabbala,  of 
the  tradition  about  the  religious  philosophy,  deeper 
knowledge,  or  gnosis  within  the  circle  of  Judaism.1 
We  accept  the  view  that  the  Zohar  is  connected  with 

1  This  is  the  opinion  of  Franck  and  Matter ;  but  Gratz  seems  to  prove 
that  the  Zohar  is  not  the  source  of  the  Cabbala,  which  Jellinek  traced  back 
to  the  Essenes. 


THE    RABBI    SIMON.  301 

Essenic  tradition,  which  formed  the  introductory  history 
of  the  Cabbala,  and  also  with  Parsism  and  Buddhism. 
We  connect  it  with  the  wisdom  of  the  Chaldasans  or 
Magi  in  which  Daniel  was  brought  up,  and  of  which 
the  Book  of  Daniel  purports  to  be  the  earliest  record. 
The  parallel  between  the  three  classes  of  the  Magi  and 
those  of  the  Rabbis  leads  us  to  assume  as  probable  the 
division  of  Eabbinical  books  into  three  parts,  according  to 
the  degrees  of  initiation.  Such  divisions  we  find  in  the 
Zohar,  and  their  respective  titles  are :  '  the  Book  of  the 
Mystery,'  then  6  the  Large  Congregation,'  and  '  the  Small 
Congregation,'  in  which  latter  the  dying  Simon  is  said 
to  have  communicated  to  a  limited  number  of  disciples 
his  last  instructions.  This  Simon  is  asserted  to  have 
been  the  father  of  Gamaliel,  at  whose  feet  Paul  and 
Aquila  are  reported  to  have  sat.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  a  genuine  scripture  from  the  Apostolic  age  forms 
the  groundwork  of  the  Zohar,  and  that  it  embodied  the 
Messianic  views  of  the  great  Simeon  the  son  of  Hillel 
*  the  Babylonian,'  and  the  first  who  received  the  title 
Rabban.  He  is  by  some  authorities  identified  with  the 
Simeon  of  the  Gospels.  The  connection  of  the  Zohar 
with  Esseuianism,  and  thus  with  Buddhism,  tends  to 
render  this  identity  of  the  Rabboni  Simeon  with  the 
Simeon  of  Luke's  Gospel  more  probable,  since  the 
Buddhistic  legend  of  Asita  forms  such  a  striking  parallel 
with  the  Gospel  narrative  of  Simeon,  who  'waited  for 
the  consolation  of  Israel.' 

The  Zohar  contains  a  full  development  of  the  Essenic 
doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah.  The  Word  or  Wisdom  of 
God,  the  celestial  Messiah,  is  designated  as  the  Creator 
of  all  things.  By  this  Messiah  Adam  was  to  such  a 
degree  enlightened  before  his  fall,  that  even  angels 
became  jealous  of  him.  This  reminds  us  of  the  Book 
of  Wisdom,  where  the  first  father  is  said  to  have  been 
preserved  by  Divine  wisdom.  The  Zohar  relates  how 
Adam  and  Eve  heard  a  voice   '  from  above  '  by  which 


302  THE    GNOSIS* 

they  were  instructed  in  the  wisdom  from  above.  So 
long  as  they  kept  the  supernatural  power  which  was 
engrafted  on  their  nature,  they  were  clad,  like  the 
angels,  in  garments  of  heavenly  light.  Yet  the  soul  has 
a  different  covering  in  the  heavenly  and  in  the  terrestrial 
w<  >rld.  The  Angel-Messiah  or  '  tree  of  life,'  like  Serosh 
called  '  the  Holy  One,'  dwells  with  such  men  only,  in 
whom  the  male  principle,  probably  the  Word  or  Memra, 
is  united  with  the  female  principle,  the  spirit  or  '  ruach,' 
which  word  is  of  female  gender.  These  conceptions 
correspond  closely  with  the  doctrines  contained  in  the 
writings  of  Simon  of  Samaria,  whom  we  have  connected 
with  the  Essenes. 

If  the  oriental  gnosis  was  introduced  into  heterodox 
Judaism  and  into  '  Christianity '  chiefly  by  the  Essenic 
Therapeuts,  then  it  is  easy  to  explain  the  prevailing 
mysticism  of  Essenes  and  Cabbalists.  But  between  the 
two  there  was  the  essential  difference,  that  the  Essenes 
connected  with  their  doctrinal  speculations,  which  were 
kept  secret,  their  practical  and  moral  aims.  Both 
Essenes  and  Cabbalists  regarded  tradition  as  the  source 
of  a  deeper  gnostic  Scriptural  interpretation ;  but  whilst 
the  Essenic  doctrines  were  partly  assimilated  to  Greek 
culture,  especially  among  the  Therapeuts,  as  also  in  the 
Septuagint  and  in  Philo's  writings,  no  such  traces  can  be 
found  in  the  Talmud  or  in  the  Zohar. 

The  Book  Yezira,  or  Creation,  corresponds  with  the 
first  division  of  the  holy  Merkabah  or  verbal  tradition  of 
the  Jews,  whilst  the  Zohar  seems  to  have  referred  to 
the  second  division,  to  that  mysticism  which  was  con- 
nected with  the  car  or  rechab  of  Ezechiel's  vision.  The 
word  '  Merkaba,'  being  a  compound  of  rechab  confirms 
this  connection,  as  also  that  of  the  Jewish  gnosis  with  the 
Essenes  and  their  predecessors,  the  Eechabites.1  This 
remarkable  book,  possibly  composed  by  the  great  Eabbi 

1  Philo,  Quis  est,  44,  45 ;  De  Somn.  i.  14,  15  ;  Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes, 
01-104. 


THE    AXGEL    METATK0X.  803 

Akiba  (135  a.d.),  perhaps  junior  contemporary  of  the 
Apostle  James,  has  been  explained  to  contain  an  indirect 
but  sharp  attack  against  a  prevailing  heretical  gnosis,  such 
as  Paul  promulgated  and  which  the  Apostle  James  disap- 
proved.1 Although  the  book  contains  striking  analogies 
and  parallels  with  some  of  the  doctrines  of  Paul,  and  also 
with  the  gnostic  writings  of  the  second  century,  yet  one 
of  the  principal  doctrines  is  the  strict  Divine  oneness, 
coupled  with  the  negation  of  the  dualism  which  was 
more  or  less  implied  by  the  introduction  of  the  new 
doctrine  of  the  Angel-Messiah  and  framer  of  the  world, 
which  Paul  had  accepted  and  applied  to  Jesus.  This 
protest  is  all  the  more  important  since  also  in  the 
Talmud  the  Angel  of  God,  who  stands  by  his  throne, 
therefore  called  Metatron,  though  regarded  as  the  highest 
being  after  God,  is  neither  considered  as  an  object  of 
worship  nor  as  a  mediator. 

In  a  polemical  dialogue  between  a  Christian  heretic 
and  Eabbi  Idit,  the  latter  admits  that  the  Angel  who  goes 
before  and  follows  Israel,  in  whom  the  '  Name  '  of  God 
is,  and  who  can  pardon  transgressions,  (therefore,  the 
Angel  whom  Paul  calls  Christ),  is  the  Metatron,  and 
his  importance  is  allowed  to  be  similar  to  that  of  God. 
But  the  heretic  having  deduced  from  this  that  the 
Angel  of  the  Lord  ought  to  be  worshipped  '  like '  God, 
the  Eabbi  replies  :  '  Thou  shalt  not  confound  him,  the 
Metatron,  with  God ;  we  have  the  conviction,  that  we 
may  not  even  accept  him  as  a  mediator.'  Again,  the 
apostacy  of  Elisa  ben  Abuya,  commonly  called  Achar,  is 
in  the  Talmud  attributed  to  the  circumstance  that  he  re- 
garded the  Metatron  as  of  about  equal  rank  with  God, 
from  which  he  drew  the  conclusion  that  there  are  two 
Divine  powers.2 

1  An  intimate  associate  of  the  Apostle  James,  Eabbi  Eliazar  ben 
Hyrkanos,  narrowly  escaped  death  during  Trajan's  persecution  by  his 
emphatic  'No'  to  the  question  whether  he  was  a  Christian  (Aboda  Sara, 
16,  17;  Gratz,  24,  note). 

2  Sanhedrim,  38;  Shagia,  15;  comp.  Hirsch  Gratz,  Gfnostizismus  inn/ 
Judmthum,  184(5. 


304  THE    GNOSIS. 

The  Revelation  of  John.  The  key  for  the  opening  of 
this  sealed  book  is  the  mysterious  symbolism  of  the  tree 
of  life  in  Paradise.  The  tree  of  life  was  symbolised  by 
the  tree-shaped  candlestick  of  Moses,  the  seven  lamps 
of  which,  like  the  seven  elevations  of  the  temple  of  Bel 
or  tower  of  Babel,  and  the  seven  steps  or  '  altars  '  of 
the  Great  Pyramid,  referred  to  the  seven  planets,  that  is, 
to  sun,  moon,  and  five  planets.  According  to  Philo  the 
central  candlestick  represented  the  sun,  but  according 
to  the  deeper  knowledge  or  gnosis  '  the  Word  of  God,' 
or  '  the  Archangelic  Word,'  the  second  Deity.'  In  the 
Apocalypse  of  John  a  vision  is  described,  in  which 
Christ,  the  Word  of  God,  appears  in  the  midst  of  the 
seven  candlesticks  or  lamps.  About  five  hundred  years 
before  Philo  this  symbolism,  applied  to  the  risen  Jesus 
by  the  Seer  of  Patmos,  was  referred  to  by  Zechariah 
the  prophet,  in  his  vision  of  the  golden  candlestick 
with  a  bowl  on  the  top  of  it,  from  which  by  pipes  the 
gold  or  golden  oil  was  conveyed  to  the  seven  lamps. 
Two  olive  trees  on  both  sides  of  the  candlestick  are 
explained  to  be  two  Anointed  Ones  (Moses  and  Elijah, 
not  Joshua  and  Zerubbabel),  two  vessels  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  symbolised  by  oil,  who  empty  or  pour  out  from 
themselves  the  gold.  The  tree  of  life  is  the  symbol  of 
Divine  enlightenment,  which  comes  from  above  to  all 
the  seven  lamps  alike,  including  the  central  lamp,  the 
symbol  of  the  Word  of  God,  of  Christ. 

This  Divine  enlightenment  coming  from  above,  and 
of  which  men  are  allowed  to  partake,  has  for  its  source 
the  seven  eyes  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  or  of  Sabaoth, 
'  which  run  to  and  fro  through  the  whole  earth.'  The 
Lord  Sabaoth  or  Sebaot,  that  is  of  the  seven  stars,  of 
the  Pleiades,  later  of  the  planets,  sent  an  Angel  to 
Zerubbabel  with  the  message,  that,  '  not  by  might  nor 
by  power,'  but  by  the  Spirit  of  God  the  things  shall 
come  to  pass  which  were  only  typified  in  those  times.' 
Zerubbabel  brought  forth,  or  rather  put  up,  the  head- 


SIGN   OF  THE    CROSS   UPON   THE    FOREHEADS.  305 

stone  of  the  temple  under  shoutings  of  joy,  the  stone 
which  God  laid  before  Joshua,  and  on  which  are  set  or 
engrafted  the  seven  eyes  of  Sabaotli.  But  Joshua  and 
those  who  sit  before  him  are  '  men  of  mark,'  or  men  of 
prophetic  import,  types  of  God's  servant,  of  *  the  man 
whose  name  is  the  Branch,'  types  of  the  Messiah.  The 
latter  may  by  Zechariah  have  been  connected  with  the 
six  men  or  angels,  as  Ezechiel  had  done  before  him. 
Paul  had  this  symbolism  of  the  candlestick  and  the 
planets  in  view  when  he  described  Christ-Jesus  as  '  the 
chief  corner  stone  '  of  '  the  holy  temple  in  the  Lord,'  in 
whom  the  believers  are  '  builded  together  for  an  habi- 
tation of  God  in  the  Spirit.' x 

The  symbolism  of  the  candlestick,  finally  applied  to 
Jesus  Christ  as  appearing  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  can- 
dlesticks, had  been  applied  before  Zechariah  by  Ezechiel 
to  six  men,  and  as  a  seventh  in  their  midst  he  described 
and  distinguished  from  them,  <  one  clothed  with  linen 
and  a  writer's  inkhorn  by  his  side,'  such  as  is  represented 
on  Egyptian  monuments  and  still  worn  in  the  East  by 
the  scribes  and  men  of  learning.  The  linen  clothing 
marks  as  a  Priest  the  angel  of  grace  in  the  midst  of 
the  six  angels  of  wrath.  In  a  similar  clothing  an 
angel,  the  Angel  of  the  Lord,  the  Angel-Messiah,  the 
Highpriest  of  Philo,  is  described  as  appearing  to  Daniel. 
It  Is  the  Angel  of  God  who  followed  the  Israelites  in 
i  the  wilderness  and  through  the  Eed  Sea,  and  who  can 
i  <  pardon'  transgressions.  The  Divine  presence,  Shechina, 
:  or  glory  above  the  Cherub,  called  this  angel  of  mercy 
and  said  unto  him  :  '  Go  through  the  midst  of  the  city,  I 
through  the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  set  the  mark  of 
Tau  (T,"the  headless  cross)  upon  the  foreheads  of  the 
men  that  sigh  and  that  cry  for  all  the  abominations 
that  are  done  in  the  midst  thereof.'     It  is  the  Angel- 

1  Zech.  iv.  3 ;  vi.   12 ;  Eph.  ii.  19-22.     Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes,  184 
208  ;  cotnp.  87  about  Simon  of  Samaria  connecting  with  the  tree  of  life 
•  the' man  of  Judah/  the  Messiah,  '  the  man  of  the  tree.' 

X 


300  THE    GNOSIS. 

Messiah  '  from  the  rising  of  the  sun,'  and  distinguished 
from  other  angels,  who  seals  with  '  the  seal  of  the  living 
God '  (the  Tau-Cross)  the  elect  of  God  in  the  midst  of 
the  Divine  judgments.1 

The  cross,  the  sign  of  Divine  enlightenment,  was  first 
connected  with  fire,  as  coming  from  the  Pleiades  in  the 
most  ancient  spring-equinoctial  sign,  then  with  the.  sun. 
When,  before  the  Exodus  from  Egypt,  at  the  time  of 
the  spring-equinox,  the  sun  had  passed  over  the  sign  of 
the  spring-equinox,  Aries,  the  ram  or  lamb,  then. a  lamb 
was  slain,  with  the  blood  of  which  the  doorposts  of  the 
Israelites  were  marked.  These  formed  a  blood-stained 
Tau-Cross,  seeing  which,  the  avenging  Angel  of  God 
passed  by  the  dwellings  of  the  Israelites.  The  same 
sign  of  the  Tau-Cross  is  to  save  the  faithful  (144,000)  in 
the  time  of  the  Messiah,  the  first  of  the  seven  angels, 
who  had  been  with  the  fathers  in  the  wilderness. 

The  planetary  symbolism  of  the  candlestick,  applied 
to  the  Messiah  by  Ezechiel,  Zechariah,  Philo,  and  John 
the  seer,  can  be  traced  back  to  the  construction  of  the 
great  Pyramid  and  of  the  temple  of  Belus,  or  tower  of 
Babel,  and  it  can  be  connected  with  the  most  ancient 
Indian  rite  known  to  us,  the  Soma-sacrifice  of  the  Eig- 
Veda.  The  juice  of  the  Soma-plant,  or  Asclepia  acida, 
symbol  of  the  tree  of  life,  flowed  from  the  Samudra-bowl 
into  the  chalices  of  the  seven  priests  who  poured  it  into 
the  sacred  fire,  following  their  leader,  or  Nestri,  who 
invoked  the  Deity  symbolised  by  fire.2  As  in  the  Soma- 
sacrifice  one  out  of  seven  priests  was  distinguished,  so 
Ezechiel  distinguished  the  Angel  of  God  or  Messiah  from 
six  men  or  angels,  and  so  Philo  distinguishes  the  central 
lamp  of  the  candlestick,  as  the  Sun  or  Word  of  God, 
from  the  six  other  lamps  symbolising  the  moon  and  five 
planets.     Finally,  John  in  the  Apocalypse  follows  this 

1  Dan.  x.  5;  xii.  6;  Ezech.  ix. ;  Rev.  vii. ;  Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes,  19. 

2  Das  Symbol  des  Kreuzes,  113,   114 ;  E.  Burnouf,  Essai  sur  le  Veda, 
303. 


MESSIANIC   SYMBOLISM    DERIVED    FROM    ASTRONOMY.      307 

Oriental  symbolism  by  describing  Christ,  the  Word  of 
God,  as  appearing  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  candlesticks, 
thus  assigning  to  him  the  place  of  the  Vedic  Nestri,  and 
by  connecting  the  seven  angels  with  the  seven  vials, 
similar  to  the  seven  chalices  of  the  Soma  priests. 

The  connection  of  the  tree  of  life  in  Eden  with  the 
four  rivers,  and  with  the  Messiah,  as  of  the  latter 
with  the  sun,  led  to  the  connection  of  the  tree  of 
life  with  the  four  seasons.  Thus  Christ,  whose  symbol 
is  the  sun,1  is  in  the  Apocalypse  connected  with  the 
tree  of  life  and  with  four  angels  '  standing  on  the 
four  corners  of  the  earth,'  as  also  Christ,  the  lamb,  is 
surrounded  by  four  beasts.  We  saw  that  the  tree  of 
life  and  knowledge,  of  Divine  wisdom,  was  already  by 
ancient  Iranian  tradition  connected  with  four  other  trees, 
representing  four  monarchies  which  should  precede  the 
Millennial  kingdom  of  heaven,  to  be  established  on  earth 
by  the  Angel-Messiah.  We  pointed  out  that  the  vision 
of  the  image  of  Nebucadnezar  and  the  visions  of  Daniel 
about  the  four  monarchies  must  be  connected  with 
the  Chaldean  or  Magian  science  in  Avhich  Daniel  was 
brought  up. 

We  need  not  here  point  out  in  full  detail  how  the 
planetary  symbolism  of  the  candlestick  of  Moses,  and 
thus  of  the  tree  of  life,  has  been  in  the  Revelation  of  John 
applied  to  the  risen  Jesus  Christ.  This  was  done  between 
July  68  and  June  69,  during  the  reign  of  Galba,  when 
the  return  of  Nero,  or  Neron-Kesar,  was  expected,  the 
letters  of  which  name  have  the  value  of  666. 2  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  Christ,  the  Word  of  God,  who  appears  over 
the  central  lamp  of  the  candlestick,  the  symbol  of 
the  sun  and  of  the  Word  of  God,  is  also  connected, 

1  The  Alpha  and  Omega,  '  the  first  and  the  last,'  refers  to  the  first  and 
the  last  letter  of  the  Zodiacal  Alphabet,  Aleph  and  Oin  (later  Ain),  applied 
to  God  and  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  thus  to  Taurus  and  Aries,  the  earliest 
spring-equinoctial  signs  (Die  Plejaden,  409-417). 

•  The  word  Lateinos  could  never  be  referred  to  ( a  man.' 

x  2 


808  THE    GNOSIS. 

as  one  of  seven  angels,  with  the  seven  spirits  of  God, 
with  the  seven  stars  in  his  hand,  with  the  seven  eyes 
and  horns  of  the  lamb,  with  seven  thunders,  and  the 
opening  of  the  seven  seals. 

We  pointed  out  that  the  seven  planets  took  the  place 
of  the  Pleiades,  with  which  seven  stars  the  seven  arch- 
angels of  the  Iranians  seem  to  have  been  connected. 
The  first  of  these  Amshaspands  was  the  God  of  light 
himself,  till  Serosh,  the  Holy  One,  the  Messiah,  took  the 
place  of  Ormuzd,  and  became  his  vicar.  When  the  sun 
had  taken  the  place  of  the  principal  star  in  the  Pleiades, 
which  must  have  been  regarded  as  the  symbol  or  dwel- 
ling-place of  Serosh,  when  the  sun  had  taken  the  place 
of  the  fire  coming  from  the  Pleiades,  then  the  spring- 
equinoctial  sign,  first  Taurus,  then  Aries,  became  the  first 
of  the  twelve  constellations  through  which  the  sun 
seemed  to  pass.  Thus  Aries,  the  ram  or  lamb,  had 
become,  perhaps  already  since  the  time  of  Abraham, 
connected  with  the  Messiah,  whose  symbol  was  the  sun, 
first  having  been  fire,  as  represented  by  the  brazen 
serpent.1  The  connection  of  the  solar  with  the  stellar 
symbolism  is  indicated  in  this  Apocalypse  by  the  lamb 
with  seven  eyes  and  seven  horns. 

The  reference  of  the  number  seven  to  the  planets  is 
confirmed  by  the  vision  of  the  book  with  seven  seals, 
each  of  which  is  connected  with  one  of  the  planets. 
For  the  planets  are  here  enumerated  according  to  the 
days  of  the  week,  and  the  first  four  seals  are  evidently 
connected  respectively  with  the  moon,  Mars,  Mercury, 
and  Jupiter.  For  the  colour  of  the  horses  corresponds 
witli  that  of  these  planets,  being  white,  fiery  red,  black, 
and  pale  or  green-yellow.  The  only  inaccuracy  is  that 
the  colour  of  Mercury  is  dark  blue,  not  black.  From 
this  it  follows  that  the  fifth  seal  was  connected  with 
Venus,  the  sixth  with  Saturn,  the  seventh  with  the  sun. 


i 

1  serpent,' 


Die  Ph'jaden,  265-321.     In  Hebrew  Nachasli  means  '  brass '  as  well  a 


THE    FOURTH    KINGDOM    AND    THE    FOURTH    SEAL.         309 

The  angel  described  standing  at  the  altar,  having  a 
golden  censer,  is  evidently  the  Angel  of  God  or  celestial 
Messiah,  whose  symbol  is  the  sun.  It  is  the  angel  of 
mercy,  the  priest  of  Ezechiel's  vision,  who  there  as  here 
seals  the  foreheads  of  the  servants  of  God,  being  here 
described  as  an  angel  having  the  seal  of  the  living 
God.1 

The  kingdom  of  the  heavenly  Serosh  was  connected 
with  the  seventh  thousand  of  years,  and  so  here  the 
Messianic  kingdom  and  Millennium  is  connected  with 
the  number  seven,  whilst  the  connection  of  this  Scrip- 
ture with  Oriental  tradition  leaves  no  room  to  doubt 
that  this  kingdom  is  intended  to  represent  the  seventh 
Millennium,  as  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  asserts.  Not 
till  after  the  opening  of  the  seventh  seal,  trumpets 
were  given  to  the  seven  angels,  and  not  before  the 
trumpet  of  the  seventh  angel  had  sounded  there  were 
great  voices  in  heaven  saying  :  '  The  kingdom  over  the 
world  is  become  our  Lord's  and  of  his  Christ,  and 
he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever.'  According  to  still 
more  ancient  Oriental  symbolism,  confirmed  by  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  the  Messianic  kingdom  was  to  follow 
on  four  monarchies,  and  so  here  the  first  four  of  the 
seven  seals  are  in  a  way  separated  from  the  rest.  The 
events  connected  with  the  fourth  kingdom  of  the  wicked 
spirits,  according  to  Iranian  tradition,  and  with  the 
fourth  kingdom  followed  by  the  little  horn  in  the  Book 
of  Daniel,  are  here  connected  with  the  opening  of  the 
fourth  seal.  The  pale  horse  with  Death  as  its  rider 
is  followed  by  Hell  (Hades),  by  famine,  pestilence,  and 
war  between  the  beasts,  or  kings  of  the  earth.  The 
same  signs  are  enumerated  in  the  Gospel  after  Matthew 

1  Job.   Brandis,  Die   Bedeutung  der  Sieben    Thore    Thebens;  Zcitsrhr. 

Hermes,  1867.  lie  suggests  that  also  the  other  cycles  of  seven  follow  the 
order  of  the  planets,  each  cycle  apparently  beginning  with  the  planet  of  each 
following  week-day.  For  the  attributes  of  the  sun  are  referred  to  in  such  a 
manner  in  x.  1,  xiv.  1,  xix.  17,  'that  each  vision  corresponds  with  one  of 
the  above-named  planets.' 


310  THE    GNOSIS. 

as  preceding  the  coming  of  Messiah  and  the  final  judg- 
ment which  the  Maccabees  expected  after  the  death  of 
Antioclms  Epiphanes. 

As  the  fourth  monarchy  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  is 
followed  by  Antioclms  Epiphanes,  so  here  upon  the 
fourth  seal  Nero  seems  to  follow,  although  his  fall  is 
described  after  the  sounding  of  the  seventh  trumpet. 
After  the  return  of  Nero,  which  was  expected  at  the 
end  of  68  or  in  the  beginning  of  69,1  '  John '  expected, 
at  once  the  fall  of  '  Babylon,'  or  Imperial  Eome,  the  des- 
cent of  the  heavenly  Messiah  and  the  heavenly  Jerusa- 
lem, symbolised  by  the  sun. 

The  opening  of  the  first  seal  is  connected  with  a 
crowned  and  victorious  rider  on  a  white  horse,  it  is 
Augustus,  during  whose  reign  the  Messiah  was  born. 
The  second  seal,  being  opened,  refers  to  the  time  of 
Tiberius,  who  carried  his  e  great  sword '  to  the  Holy 
Land.  The  third  rider,  on  a  black  horse,  '  having  a 
balance  in  his  hand,'  introduces  us  to  the  famine 
under  Claudius,  probably  in  the  year  44.  The  fourth 
epoch  is  characterised  as  Death  riding  on  a  pale 
horse,  with  Hell,  famines,  pestilences,  and  war  in 
his  train.  When  the  lamb  opens  the  fifth  seal,  are 
seen  the  Christian  martyrs  slain  by  Nero,  the  fifth 
emperor,  '  the  souls  of  them  that  have  been  slain  for 
the  Word  of  God,  and  for  the  testimony  which  they 
bore.'  They  are  the  Christians  slain  in  64,  after  the 
burning  of  Eome.  The  opening  of  the  sixth  seal  refers 
to  the  time  of  Galba's  reign,  from  June  68  to  January 
69,  to  the  time  when  the  Apocalypse  was  composed, 
when  the  entire  Eoman  Empire  seemed  to  be  shaken.  As 
Pliny  refers  to  terrible  disasters  then  caused  by  earth- 
quakes in  Asia  Minor,  so  in  Matthew  the  beginning  of 


1  About  the  historical  pseudo-Neros  of  this  time  and  of  later  times  see 
IIil<renfeld,  Einl.  N.  T.  ergte  Auxy.  451  ;  Nero  der  Antichrist ;  Zeitschrift  f. 
v.  T.  1800,  iv.  421. 


ANTI-PAULINISM    IK   THE   APOCALYPSE.  311 

the  world's  judgment  is  described  with  an  eye  to  the  pro- 
phetic explanation  of  passages  in  Isaiah  and  Ezechiel.1 

Our  object  has  been  to  establish  the  connection  of 
the  Eevelation  of  John  with  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and 
thus  with  Oriental  traditions,  especially  with  the  plane- 
tary symbolism  of  the  Mosaic  candlestick.  We  have  con- 
nected the  latter  with  Philo's  writings,  with  the  visions 
of  Zechariah  and  Ezechiel,  as  also  with  the  great  Pyra- 
mid and  the  tower  of  Babel,  and  finally  with  the  Soma- 
sacrifice  described  in  the  Kig-Veda.  The  Messiah  of  this 
Apocalypse,  as  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  and  of  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  which  we  have  connected  with  it,  is  the 
Angel-Messiah  of  the  Essenes,  who  introduced  that  con- 
ception into  non-authorised  Judaism,  and  applied  it  to 
Jesus.  As  far  as  Ave  know,  this  was  first  publicly  done 
through  Stephen  and  Paul. 

We  saw  that  the  latter  promulgated  the  universalist 
doctrines  of  the  Essenic  Therapeuts  of  Egypt,  and  we 
shall  see  that  for  this  reason  even  Barnabas,  a  Levite 
and  probably  a  Palestinian  Essene,  separated  from  the 
great  Apostle.  Also  Barnabas  has  in  so  far  represented 
an  illegal  Judaism,  as  he,  with  the  Essenes,  interpreted 
the  Scriptures  allegorically,  thus  attributing  to  them  an 
essentially  different  sense.  The  hatred  against  Paul, 
as  the  universalist  Essene  and  open  condemner  of 
the  works  of  the  law,  has  found  its  strongest  expres- 
sion in  the  Eevelation  of  '  John.'  Paul  is  not  re- 
cognised as  an  Apostle,  possibly  even  referred  to  as  a 
false  prophet,  and  the  Therapeutic  and  Paulinic  prin- 
ciples of  toleration,  submission  to  authority,  even  to 
that  of  Nero,2  equal  recognition  of  Jews  and  Gentiles 
are  condemned. 

1  Pliny's  Letters,  vi.  16,  20;  Is.  xxxiv.  4;  ii.  18;  comp.  Rev.  vi.  15 
with  Is.  xxiv.  21,  22  ;  verse  16  with  IIos.  x.  8  ;  see  Luke  xxiii.  30.  This 
historical  interpretation  is  taken  from  Holtzmann,  in  Bunsen's  Bibelwerk,  iv. 
644-646 ;  see  ff.  and  Ililgenfeld,  /.  c.  407-452,  for  the  remainder. 

2  "Rom.  xiii.  1.  f. ;  comp.  Rev.  xvi.  13,  &c.  Volkmar  identifies  Paul  and 
the  '  false  prophet.' 


312  THE    GNOSIS. 

The  Christology  of  the  Apocalypse  does  not,  any- 
more than  that  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  clearly  define 
the  Messiah  as  an  incarnate  angel  come  clown  from 
heaven.  As  if  wishing  to  spare  those  who  expected  the 
Messiah  to  be  the  anointed  man  of  the  Old  Testament, 
Christ  is  in  both  Scriptures  described  as '  One  like  a  son 
of  man,'  raised  by  the  clouds  of  heaven  to  the  throne 
of  God.  The  seer  does  not  say,  but  implies,  that  the 
Messiah  is  the  Creator  of  the  material  world,  an  opinion 
which  was  shared  also  by  Paul.  Christ  is  in  the  Apo- 
calypse described  as  '  the  beginning  of  the  creation  of 
God,'  who  is  perhaps  regarded  as  the  Creator  of  the 
immaterial,- spiritual,  or  heavenly  world  only. 

Of  the  first-created  beings,  presumably  those  whom 
God  is  in  Genesis  reported  to  have  addressed  as  co-' 
Creators  of  man,  Christ  is  by  '  Jolm  '  regarded  to  have 
been  the  first,  the  first  of  seven  archangels.  He  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  six  other  angels,  and  is  alone  en- 
trusted with  '  the  seal  of  the  living  God.'  A  premundane 
created  being  like  Christ,  according  to  Essenic  concep- 
tion, coidd  be  regarded  as  the  Creator  of  the  material 
world,  and  yet  God  could  be  described  as  the  real  Crea- 
tor of  heaven  and  earth,  who  had  delegated  the  power 
over  all  things  to  the  first  of  created  beings.  A  similar 
doctrine  was  taught  by  Paul.1  The  conception  of 
Christ  as  the  first  of  seven  angels  forms  an  exact  parallel 
to  the  Eastern  symbolism  of  Serosh,  the  vicar  of  God 
and  first  of  seven  archangels,  to  whom  the  rule  over  the 
material  world  was  transmitted  by  the  God  of  light. 
Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  protests  against 
such  a  connection  of  Christ  with  other  angels. 

These  conceptions  of  the  seer  '  Jolm  '  about  the 
Messiah  are  inseparably  connected,  as  we  pointed  out, 
with  the  planetary  symbolism  of  the  Mosaic  candlestick, 
and  with  corresponding  earlier  Egyptian,  Mesopotamia!!, 
Indian,  and  Chinese  traditions.     As  the  juice  from  the 

1  Rev.  x.  G  ;  comp.  Rom.  xi.  30 ;  1  Cor.  viii.  5,  6 ;  xv.  28 ;  Eph.  iii.  0. 


DISTINCTION   BETWEEN    CHRIST    AND   JESUS.  313 

Soma-plant  and  the  oil  from  the  olive  tree,  both  symbols 
of  the  tree  of  life,  was  represented  above  the  seven  Indian 
priests,  and  above  the  seven  candlesticks  of  Zechariah's 
vision,  denoting  thereby  the  superhuman  source  of  en- 
lightenment, so  the  Divine  Presence  above  the  Cheru- 
bim, seen  by  Ezechiel,  called  upon  the  one  of  seven  men 
who  was  clothed  in  linen,  the  Messianic  Highpriest, 
whether  angel  or  man,  to  mark  the  foreheads  of  the 
servants  of  God  by  the  sign  of  the  Tau-Cross.  Again, 
as  Philo  had  described  the  central  lamp  of  the  candle- 
stick to  be  the  symbol  of  the  sun  and  also  of  the  Word 
of  God,  '  the  Archangelic  Word,'  so  in  the  Eevelation 
Christ  is  called  the  Word  of  God,  and  described  as  s  he 
that  walketh  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  candlesticks,' 
and  also  as  the  first  of  seven  archangels,  who  seals 
with  '  the  seal  of  the  living  God  '  (with  the  Cross)  the 
servants  of  God.     This  is  not  Paulinic  Christology. 

Paul  had  not  stated  whether  or  not  Jesus  was  born 
like  other  men,  nor  whether  the  Holy  Ghost  was  first 
communicated  to  him  on  his  baptism.  '  John  '  clearly 
distinguishes  the  celestial  from  the  terrestrial  nature 
of  Christ,  yet  connects  the  Word  of  God  with  Jesus. 
'  John '  was  in  the  island  '  on  account  of  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus.'  The  revealer  announces 
himself  as  Jesus  who  was  dead  and  now  is  '  alive  for 
evermore,'  having  the  keys  of  death  and  hell,  and  being 
6  the  First  and  the  Last,  the  living  One.'  Thus  the 
risen  '  Jesus  Christ,  the  faithful  witness,  the  Firstborn 
of  the  dead,  and  the  ruler  of  the  kings  of  the  earth,'  is 
recorded  to  have  revealed  himself  under  the  same  title 
which  is  given  to  '  the  Alpha  and  Omega,'  to  the  6  Lord 
God,  which  is,  and  which  was,  and  which  is  to  come,  the 
Almighty.'1 

It  is  in  harmony  with  this  identification  of  God  and 
of  Christ,  or  the  first  of  seven  angels,  that  the  angel 
who  had  an  opened  little  book,  speaks  alternately  in 

1  Oomp.  Rev.  i.  o,  7,8,9;  ii.  17, 18 ;  xxii.  13. 


314  THE    GXOSIS. 

the  inline  of  God  and  of  Christ,  as  whose  two  witnesses 
the  reappearing  Moses  and  Elijah  seem  to  be  implied.1 
From  this  angel  and  all  other  angels,  thus  also  from 
Christ,  is  clearly  distinguished  Jesus,  '  the  Lion  which  is 
of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  Eoot  of  David,'  the  One  of  all 
the  inhabitants  of  heaven  or  of  earth  who  was  '  able  to 
open  the  book,'  and  '  who  has  conquered,'  (so  as) '  to  open 
the  book  and  the  seven  seals  thereof.'  This  Jesns,  born 
like  other  men,  for  he  genealogically  descended  from 
David,  has  been  raised  as  '  One  like  a  son  of  man,'  and 
has  become  at  one  with  the  first  of  '  the  seven  angels 
which  stand  before  God.'  And  yet,  as  '  Jesns  Christ,  the 
faithful  witness,'  he  is  distinguished  from  any  angel. 
Having  been  raised  on  the  clouds  of  heaven  to  the 
throne  of  God,  having  occupied  the  position  of  Christ' 
as  the  premundane  Word  of  God,  as  the  first  of  seven 
angels,  he  who  on  earth  was  the  'fellow-servant'  of 
John,  now  sends  his  angel  to  the  seer,  and  forbids  him, 
as  Eabbi  Idit  forbade  later  a  Christian  heretic,  to  wor- 
ship any  other  than  God. 

The  same  Angel  whom  the  raised  Jesus  Christ 
designates  as  '  My  Angel,'  is  in  the  same  chapter  ex- 
plained to  be  the  Angel  of  the  God  '  of  the  spirits  of 
the  prophets.'  For  both,  God  as  well  as  Christ-Jesus, 
are  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  First  and  the  Last.  Yet 
in  the  Apocalypse  of  John  the  eternal  Word  of  God, 
the  first  of  seven  Angels,  is  distinguished  from  and  at  the 
same  time  identified  with  the  risen  Jesus  Christ.  The  Lion 
of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  Eoot  of  David,  the  faithful 
witness  who  was  crucified  at  Jerusalem,  '  like  a  son  of 
man'  was  carried  on  the  clouds  to  the  throne  of  God, 
and  is  now  the  first  of  the  seven  Archangels  standing 
before  God,  the  Angel  from  whose  hands  Jesus  took  the 
book  of  mysteries. 

Paul  opposed  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Colossians    the 

1  Rev.  x.  6;  xi.  3:  comp.  xiv.  14,  17;  v.  1-5;  xxii.  7-20.;  Hoekstra, 
Th.  Tijdachr.m.  373  fj  398  1'. 


THE    VISIONS   OF   CEBINTHUS.  3lo 

distinction,  which  is  made  in  this  Apocalypse,  of  a 
celestial  Christ  and  a  terrestrial  Messiah,  by  the  doctrine 
of  the  fulness  or  Plenitude  of  God  dwelling  bodily 
in  the  one  person  Christ- Jesus. 

The  Apostle  warns  the  Colossians  against  an  Essenic 
false  teacher,  against  '  a  certain  person,'  whom  he  might 
name,  and  who  threatens  to  carry  them  off  as  plunder 
1  by  philosophy  and  (which  is)  vain  deceit,  in  accordance 
with  mere  human  traditions  and  earthly  rudiments,  and 
not  in  accordance  with  Christ.'  It  has  pleased  God, 
that  the  eternal  Christ,  ;  who  is  the  Image  of  the  Unseen 
God,  the  Firstborn  of  all  creation,'  in  whom,  by  whom, 
and  unto  whom  '  all  things  have  been  created,'  both  in 
heaven  and  earth,  that  this  '  man  from  heaven,'  as  Paul 
writes  to  the  Corinthians,  that  He  who  is  the  embodi- 
ment of  '  the  whole  '  Plentitude  of  God,  not  of  a  Divine 
plentitude  divided  among  Angels,  should,  as  Jesus,  '  in 
the  body  of  his  flesh,  by  death,'  yea  '  by  the  blood  of 
his  cross  '  make  peace,  and  '  reconcile '  those  who  were 
alienated  from  God  and  his  enemies.1 

We  saw  that  the  same  double  personality  of  a 
celestial  and  a  contemporaneous  terrestrial  Messiah, 
which  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  Christology 
in  the  Apocalypse,  is  assumed  in  the  pre-Christian 
Targum  after  Jonathan,  where  the  Messianic  Word  of 
God  is  said  to  rejoice  over  God's  servant,  the  Messiah. 
The  same  distinction  was  made  by  the  Christian  gnostic 
Cerinthus,  whose  Christology,  in  every  essential  point, 
may  be  regarded  as  identical  with  that  in  the  Eevelation 
of  l  John.'  For  even  the  view  of  Cerinthus  that  Christ, 
because  a  'spiritual  being,'  departed  from  Jesus  before 
lie  suffered,  is  not  excluded  by  the  doctrine  of  Christ  in 
the  Apocalypse.  According  to  the  earliest  statement  of 
Irenaeus,  Cerinthus  did  believe  in  the  humanity  of  Jesus, 
1  that  Jesus  suffered  and  rose  again'.  This  is  emphati- 
cally declared  by  '  John,'  who  refers  to  the  redemption  by 

1  Col.  ii.  6-9;  i.  19-22,  comp.  Gal.  i.  7 ;  1  Cor.  xy.  47. 


316  THE    GXOSIS. 

the  blood  of  Jesus,  to  his  translation  on  the  clouds  of 
heaven  as  one  '  like '  a  son  of  man,  and  to  his  appearing 
as  Jesus  and  as  Christ  after  his  death. 

Thus  according  to  Cerinthus  and  according  to  John 
at  Patmos  the  man  Jesus  was  after  his  death  united 
with  Christ,  whom  the  one  calls  a  '  spiritual  being,'  the 
other,  the  first  of  seven  Angels  from  whose  hands  Jesus 
took  the  book.  Because  Cerinthus  distinguished  Jesus 
from  Christ  whilst  on  earth,  Epiphanius  declares,  that 
Cerinthus  denied  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,1  that  Christ 
had  come  in  the  flesh.  Like  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Colos- 
sians,  the  First  Epistle  of  the  Apostle  John  protests 
against  this,  as  we  shall  consider  further  on.  If  so, 
the  Apostle  John  cannot  possibly  have  written  the  Apo- 
calypse, containing  the  Cerinthian  doctrine  of  Christ. 

According  to  a  tradition  which  reaches  back  to  Poly- 
crates,  a  personal  disciple  of  the  Apostle  John,  the  latter 
designated  Cerinthus  at  Ephesus,  where  he  met  him 
in  a  bath,  as  'the  enemy  of  truth.'  Cajus,  a  Eoman 
presbyter,  at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  asserts  that 
Cerinthus  falsely  attributed  to  the  Apostle  John — pro- 
bably by  reference  to  Churches  in  Asia  Minor,  where 
the  latter  was  known — his  own  record  of  visions  or 
revelations  conveyed  to  him  by  angels. 

Dionysos  of  Alexandria  (+  265)  referred  to  the 
assertion  of  some  of  his  predecessors  among  the 
presbyters  of  Alexandria,  that  '  the  book  has  a  false 
title,  for  it  is  not  of  John,'  nor  '  even  a  revelation  ; '  and 
Cerinthus,  '  wishing  to  have  reputable  authority  for  his 
own  fiction,  prefixed  the  title.'  Dionysos  adds  :  '  It  is 
highly  probable  that  Cerinthus  designedly  affixed  the 
name  (of  John)  to  his  own  forgery  ;  for  one  of  the  doc- 
trines which  lie  taught  was,  that  Christ  would  have 
an  '  earthly  kingdom  '  of  a  thousand  years'  duration, 
as  recorded  by  '  John  '  in  the  Apocalypse.  Dionysos 
regarded  as  uncertain  who  the  John  of  the  Apocalypse 

1    Epiph.  liar,  xxviii.  1. 


WAS    JOHN-CERIXTHUS  A  PRESBYTER    AT    EPHESUS  ?      317 

was,  but  he  saw  no  reason  for  doubting  that  '  a  John ' 
wrote  it.  He  implies  that  the  non- Apostolic  author 
may  have  had  a  double  name,  like  John-Marcus  who, 
as  he  observes,  yet  is  called  John  in  the  Acts.  His 
only  reason  for  not  venturing  to  set  aside  the  book  is, 
that  '  there  are  many  brethren  who  value  it  much.' l 

Dionysos  does  not  say  a  word  against  the  presbyterial 
tradition  of  Alexandria  (as  of  Borne),  that  Cerinthus 
was  the  John  of  the  Apocalypse,  thus  almost  implying 
that  this  gnostic  was  called  John-Cerinthus.  If  we  add 
to  this  the  supposition  that  Cerinthus  may  have  been 
one  of  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  the  whole  difficulty  of 
the  dark  passage  in  the  writings  of  Papias  (+  156  or 
162 2)  might  be  cleared  up,  who  distinguishes  a 
presbyter  John  from  the  Apostle  John.  Papias 
refers  to  the  tradition  that  two  Johns  lived  in 
Asia  and  were  buried  at  Ephesus,  where  the  monu- 
ment of  the  Apostle  was  not  distinguished  from  that 
of  his  namesake.  He  adds:  'We  are  bound  to  take 
notice  of  this  (the  two  Johns),  for  it  is  natural  that 
the  other  (the  presbyter  John)  is  accepted,  when  some- 
body will  not  (will  not  accept?)  that  the  former  (the 
Apostle  John)  has  seen  (had  the  visions  of)  the  Apoca- 
lypse published  under  the  name  of  John.'  3 

What  we  know  about  the  Church  at  Ephesus  can 
be  well  harmonised  with  the  assumption  of  efforts 
made  by  Cerinthus  in  that  Church,  as  almost  certainly 
in  that  of  Colossi,  against  Paul  and  his  doctrines.  Paul 
had  spent  two  years  at  Ephesus,  where  he  left  Aquila 
and  Priscilla,  and  was  followed  by  Apollos.  From 
Ephesus  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians  that  a  great 
and  effectual  door  was  there  opened  unto  him ;  but  he 

1  Eus.  H.  E.  iii.  28;  vii.  25 ;  Iren.  Hcer.  i.  26  ;  Epiph.  Bter,  xxviii.  6; 
Theod.  fab.  Hcsr.  ii.  3. 

2  Waddington,  Inscr.  xxxi.  2,  p.  232  f.  (1867). 

3  About  the  text  see  Eus.  H.  E.  iii.  39 ;  conip.  Leimbach,  Das  Papias 
Fragment,  1875 ;  Weifteubach,  Das  Papias  Fragment :  Hilgenfeld,  Zeit- 
schriftf.  w.  T.,  1875. 


318  THE    GNOSIS. 

admitted  at  the  same  time  and  place  that  there  were 
4  many  adversaries.'  Among  these  may  well  have  been 
such  who  had  before  him  preached  Christianity  in  a 
non-Panlinic  form.  That  the  Church  at  Ephesus  was 
founded  by  Paul  is  a  mere  assumption,  not  proved  by 
the  Scriptures.  He  refers  to  such,  who  did  not  regard 
him  as  an  Apostle.  When  he  took  leave  of  the  elders 
of  Ephesus,  whom  he  had  summoned  from  Miletus, 
he  warned  them  that  after  his  departing  'grievous 
wolves '  would  '  enter  in '  the  presbytery,  '  not  sparing 
the  flock.'  'Also  from  among  yourselves  men  will 
arise  who  speak  perverse  things  to  draw  away  the 
disciples  after  them.'  Among  the  perverse  elders  of 
Ephesus,  who  would  arise  after  Paul's  departure  from 
Miletus,  and  against  whom  he  warned  the  Ephesian 
elders  in  his  farewell  address  in  this  city,  may  have  been 
Cerinthus,  whom  at  Ephesus  the  Apostle  John  called  an 
enemy  of  the  truth.  Paul  pointed  to  him  in  his  Epistle 
to  the  Colossians,  all  but  calling  him  by  name,  and  he 
seems  also  indirectly  to  refer  to  him  as  a  dangerous  false 
teacher  in  his  address  at  Miletus. 

If  Cerinthus  had  an  opportunity  in  any  of  his  writ- 
ings, we  may  safely  assume  that  he  would  reckon  Paul 
among  '  wicked  persons,'  and  especially  as  belonging  to 
those  who  have  been  tried  by  the  Church  at  Ephesus, 
by  the  Church  where  Paul  had  met  so  '  many  adver- 
saries,'and  which  evil  persons  Ephesus  could  not  'bear.' 
Cerinthus  would  not  have  resisted  the  temptation  of 
referring  to  such  who  '  say  they  are  Apostles,  and  are 
not,'  thus  pointing  to  Paul's  statement,  that  to  some  he 
was  '  not  an  Apostle '  though  he  asserted  to  be  one. 
Cerinthus  may  have  been  led  to  say  that  Ephesus  has 
found  such  to  be  '  liars.'  Paul  having  accepted  the  faith 
of  Stephen,  of  the  colleague  of  Nicolas,  called  prose- 
lyte of  Antioch,  Cerinthus  could  regard  Paul  as  belong- 
ing to  the  Nicolaitans,  who,  as  we  shall  see,  derived 
their  name  from  the  former,  and  who  would  be  hated 


CHRISTOLOGY    OF    CERINTHUS.  319 

by  Jewish  Christians  because  of  their  dealings  with 
Gentiles,  which  in  the  received  figurative  sense  would 
make  them  chargeable  with  immorality.  Cerinthus 
might  well  have  lamented,  after  the  death  of  Paul,  that 
the  Church  at  Ephesus  had  left  her  '  first  love,'  that  is, 
that  she  had  changed  her  original  form  of  Christianity, 
probably  more  akin  to  the  gnosticism  of  Cerinthus,  for 
another,  perhaps  for  Petrinic  Christianity,  and  this  would 
be  designated  by  Cerinthus  as  a  fall.1 

These  passages  in  a  Scripture  which  excludes  Paul 
from  the  Apostolic  body,  which  promulgates  Cerinthian 
Christology,  and  which  was  attributed  to  Cerinthus  by 
presbyterial  tradition  of  the  Eoman  and  of  the  Alexan- 
drian Church,  can  be  easily  referred  to  Paul.  For  the 
latter  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  by  the  expression 
'  a  certain  person,'  seems  to  have  pointed  to  Cerinthus, 
and  likewise  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  the  Apostle 
uses  the  same  word  in  the  plural,  '  certain  persons,' 
when  speaking  of  some  who  troubled  the  Galatians, 
and  strove  to  '  pervert  the  gospel  of  Christ,'  as  preached 
by  Paul. 

These  anti-Paulinic  views  of  Cerinthus  were  confirmed 
by  his  followers ;  for,  like  the  anti-Paulinic  Ebionites, 
they  continued  to  use,  up  to  the  fourth  century,  Mat- 
thew's Gospel  only.  There  were  Ebionites  still  in  the 
time  of  Epiphanius  (+  403),  who  connected  Christ  with 
angels  and  archangels,  as  this  is  done  by  the  '  Eevela- 
tion  of  John.'  It  can  be  proved  that  Ebionites  and 
Elkesaitans,  like  Cerinthus  and  probably  all  Palestinian 
Essenes,  rejected  Paul  and  his  Epistles,  as  also  the  ca- 
nonical Acts.2  The  first  Christian  Apocalypse,  that  of 
'the  twelve  Apostles  of  the  Lamb,'  and  of  the  ruler  of 
the  Gentiles  '  with  a  rod  of  iron,'  represents  that  anti- 
Paulinic  Jewish-Christianity,  with  which  the  Gentile- 

1  Kev.  ii.  1-7. 

2  Ireii.  Har.  i.  20;  Orig.  c.  Cels.  v.  Gl,  Go,  &c. ;  Eus.  H.  E.  iii.  27  ;  Theod. 
Hcer.fab.  ii.  1  ;  Epiphanius,  Ilcer.  xxx.  3,  16;  Hilgenfeld,  I.  c.  39-41. 


320  THE    GNOSIS. 

excluding  Essenes  of  Palestine  and  Cerinthus  may  be 
connected.1  Cerinthus  lived  in  Asia  Minor,  and  was 
brought  up  in  Egypt,  where  were  such  who  taught  a 
narrow  Judaism,  against  which  Apollos,  like  Paul,  pro- 
tested, as  the  latter  did  against  Cerinthian  Christ ology, 
which  we  meet  in  the  Apocalypse.  To  the  Gentile-exclud- 
ing principle  of  Cerinthus  points  also  the  statement  of 
Epiphanius,  that  Cerinthus  belonged  to  those  who  blamed 
Paul  for  his  relations  with  Cornelius,  the  reported  first 
fruit  of  the  Gentile  Church. 

The  connection  of  a  celestial  but  Gentile-excluding 
kingdom  of  thousand  years  with  the  reign  of  an  Angel- 
Messiah  was,  as  we  pointed  out,  an  Oriental  tradition, 
only  partly,  or  without  the  Millennium,  developed  and 
applied  to  Jewish  history  in  the  Book  of  Daniel. 
Cerinthus  is  the  first  of  whom  we  can  prove  that  he 
thus  supplemented  the  Book  of  Daniel  by  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Millennium,  whether  he  wrote  the  Eevela- 
tion  of  John  or  not.  The  Book  of  Daniel,  the  pre- 
Christian  Targumim  and  Cerinthus,  like  the  Ebionites 
and  Essenes,  made  no  distinction  between  Judaism  and 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or  that  which  was  already 
in  the  time  of  Cerinthus  called  Christianity.  But 
Irenasus  informs  us  that  Cerinthus,  unlike  some  Ebio- 
nites, regarded  the  Word  of  God  or  Christ  as  Creator  of 
the  world,  and  taught  that  the  world  did  not  know  the 
true  God  till  he  was  manifested  in  Christ.  This  contrast 
between  the  God  of  Judaism  and  the  God  of  Christianity, 
and  thus  between  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  was  the 
fundamental  doctrine  of  Marcion,  who,  like  Philo  and 
Cerinthus,  placed  the  highest  subordinate  spirit,  the 
mighty  but  not  almighty  framer  of  the  world,  between 
God  as  the  absolute  good,  and  the  Devil  as  the  principle 

1  Some  Ebionites  (Essenes  ?)  admitted  the  human  nature  of  Jesus,  and 
so  did  Cerinthus  and  the  '  John'  of  the  Apocalypse,  but  Barnabas  denied  the 
descent  from  David.  The  distinction  of  the  Angel  having  power  over  the 
fire  from  the  Angel  of  the  waters  (Rev.  xiv.  18;  xvi.  5)  may  be  connected 
with  the  Essenic  water-  and  fire-baptism. 


CHRISTOLOGY    OF   CERIXTHUS.  321 

of  evil.  Cerinthus  taught  that  Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph 
and  Mary,  was  born  like  other  men,  '  not  of  a  virgin,' 
and  '  after  his  baptism  Christ  descended  upon  him 
in  the  form  of  a  dove  from  the  Supreme  Euler,' 
when  '  he  proclaimed  the  unknown  Father,  and  per- 
formed miracles;  at  last  Christ  departed  from  Jesus, 
and  then  Jesus  suffered  and  rose  again,  while  Christ 
remained  impassible,  inasmuch  as  he  was  a  spiritual 
being.' 1 

With  these  views  it  is  easy  to  connect  those  at- 
tributed to  him  by  Epiphanius  about  the  continued 
validity  of  all  the  injunctions  of  the  law,  and  about 
the  Millennium,  to  which  Cajus  refers.  Cerinthus,  like 
Barnabas  and  Eleazar  at  Adiabene,  regarded  the  works 
of  the  law  as  absolutely  necessary  to  salvation,  and  he 
must  have  opposed  Paul  as  violently  as  Eleazar  opposed 
Ananias  at  Adiabene,  and  as,  for  the  contrary  reason, 
Paul  opposed  Peter  at  Antioch.  We  saw  that  a  simi- 
lar difference  existed  between  the  Palestinian  Essenes, 
as  strict  observers  of  the  law,  notwithstanding  their 
allegorical  and  gnostic  Scripture-interpretation,  and  the 
Egyptian  Essenes  or  Therapeuts,  who  insisted  on  the 
perfect  equality  of  Gentiles  and  Jews.  We  shall  connect 
Barnabas  and  Cerinthus  with  the  Palestinian  Essenes, 
and  we  have  connected  Paul  and  Apollos  with  Thera- 
peutic doctrines.  If  Cerinthus  was  led  to  Christianity 
through  Alexandrian  Judaism,  he  cannot  have  accepted 
the  Therapeutic  principle  of  universality,  like  Paul  and 
Apollos,  but  he  clung  to  that  narrow  Judaism,  the 
spreading  of  which  Paul  tried  to  check  in  Colossa3, 
Apollos  in  Alexandria. 

Cerinthus  opposed  that  liberty  which  regarded  itself 
not  bound  by  the  fetters  of  the  law,  which  liberty  Paul 
had  openly  confessed  and  generally  promulgated.  That 
4  glorious  liberty,'  checked  only  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  which  relies  on  conscience  as  a  sufficient  guide,  had 

1  Iren.  Heer.  i.  26. 
Y 


322  THE    GNOSIS. 

led  Paul  not  to  condemn  the  eating  of  meat  sacrificed 
to  idols.  Cerinthus  must  have  hated  this  liberty,  and 
what  it  often  led  to,  as  much  as  the  writer  of  the 
Apocalypse  hated  the  Nicolaitans,  who  ate  '  things 
sacrificed  unto  idols  '  and  committed  '  fornication.'  We 
explain  this  latter  charge  by  that  figurative  sense  in 
which  alone  it  could  be  said  that  Israel  'went  a 
whoring  after  other  gods,'  or  '  with  their  inventions.' 
In  this  sense  we  have  explained  the  narratives  about 
Thamar  and  about  Eahab.  Ezra  had  condemned  the 
marriage  between  Hebrews  and  strangers  as  an  unclean- 
ness  and  abomination,  and  had  ordered  the  prescribed 
atoning  sacrifice.  Thus  also  Zechariah's  vision  about 
the  woman  in  the  ephah,  symbolising  '  wickedness,'  pro- 
bably referred  to  the  same  illegal  concubinages  or 
whoredoms.  So  the  Nicolaitans  may  have  been  charged 
with  fornication  because  of  their  making  no  distinction 
between  Gentiles  and  Jews.  By  not  forbidding  the 
eating  of  things  sacrificed  to  idols,  a  bridge  between 
Jews  and  Gentiles  had  been  erected — an  illegal  affinity 
between  them.  Again,  in  a  figurative  sense,  those 
Christians  who  are  called  Nicolaitans  are  designated  as 
4  children '  of  Jezebel,  and  followers  of  the  teaching  of 
Balaam,  which  led  Israelites  '  to  commit  whoredom  with 
the  daughters  of  Moab  '  and  to  eat  and  bow  before  their 
gods.  The  reference  to  Paul's  First  Epistle  to  the  Co- 
rinthians is  confirmed  by  the  hidden  reference  to  the 
'  deep  things '  or  depths  of  the  knowledge  of  God, 
to  the  gnosis,  which  Paul  and  others  preached,  and 
which  led  to  '  the  depths  of  Satan,'  in  the  opinion  of 
'John.'1 

The  intention  to  connect  Paul  with  the  Nicolaitans, 
admitted  by  many  interpreters,  becomes  more  plausible 
when  we  consider  the  connection  we  tried  to  establish 
between  Paul  and  Stephen,  whose  colleague,  as  one  of  the 
seven  deacons,  was  Nicolas,  '  the  proselyte  ofAntioch,' 

1  See  pp.  141-143 ;  Rev.  ii.  24 ;  I.  Cor.  ii.  10. 


CHEISTOLOGY   OF   CERINTHUS.  323 

according  to  Irenseus,  from  whom  the  Nicolaitans  derived 
their  name.  The  unimpeachable  testimony  as  to  the 
identity  of  this  deacon  with  the  founder  of  the  sect  of 
Christians  who  ate  things  sacrificed  to  idols,  which  Paul 
did  not  forbid,  and  who  committed  '  fornication,'  in- 
directly confirms  our  figurative  interpretation  of  this 
charge.  For  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  assume  that 
Nicolas,  one  of  the  '  men  of  honest  report,  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,'  on  whom  after  prayer  the  Apostles  laid 
their  hands,  should  have  been  in  the  literal  sense  of  the 
word  a  fornicator,  or  the  founder  of  a  sect  of  Christians 
who  could  be  charged  with  such  offence. 

Together  with  the  Apostle  Barnabas,  the  author  of 
the  Epistle  bearing  his  name,  and  which  we  shall  now 
consider,  Cerinthus  may  be  connected  with  that  phase  of 
Oriental  and  Essenian  gnosticism  which  was  represented 
by  the  Anti-Paulinic  and  Gentile-excluding  Essenes 
of  Palestine,  as  distinguished  from  the  universalist 
Essenes  of  Egypt.  If  Cerinthus  wrote  the  Revelation 
of  John  about  the  return  of  Jesus  as  Angel-Messiah,  he 
is  the  most  probable  individual  of  whom  a  conversa- 
tion with  the  patriarch  Eabban  Gamaliel  is  recorded  in 
the  Talmud.  The  latter  asked  a  Christian  philosopher 
about  the  continued  validity  of  the  law  after  the  future 
coining  of  Christ,  and  was  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
the  Christian  citing  words  of  Jesus,  as  probably  re- 
corded in  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews,  known  to  us  by 
a  later  version  in  Matthew  :  '  I  am  not  come  to  diminish 
or  to  enlarge  the  law  of  Moses.' 1 

We  regard  Cerinthus  as  the  probable  author  of  the 
Apocalypse  of  John.  The  Apostle  John  cannot  have  be- 
lieved in  Jesus  Christ  as  present  or  future  Angel-Messiah, 
of  which  doctrine  there  is  no  trace  in  the  first  three 
Gospels.  Early  presbyterian  tradition  of  the  Roman 
and  of  the  Alexandrian  Church  pointed  to  Cerinthus  as 
the  real  author  of  the  Apocalypse  of  John.     Like  John- 

1  Cited  by  Grata,  I.  c.  23,  24. 

i  2 


324  THE    GXOSIS, 

Marcus,  Cerinthus  may  also  have  been  known  under  the 
name  of  John,  as  Dionysos  seems  to  imply.  In  this 
case  John-Cerinthus  may  have  been  'the  presbyter 
John,'  mentioned  by  Papias  (+  156  or  163)  as  a  living 
authority,  whom  he  distinguishes  from  the  Apostle 
John  and  the  other  '  disciples  of  the  Lord,'  without  re- 
ferring to  Paul,  as  if  this  Apostle  had  been  one  of  the 
repeaters  of  '  strange  precepts,'  not  '  given  by  the  Lord,' 
an  outsider.  The  presbyter  John  was  buried  at  Ephesus 
by  the  side  of  the  Apostle  John.  Paul  refers  to  per- 
verse elders  at  Ephesus,  where  he  had  long  ministered, 
and  where  were  disciples  of  John  or  Essenes  ;  the  John  of 
the  Apocalypse  refers  to  wicked  persons  at  Ephesus,  who 
wrongly  called  themselves  Apostles,  as  Paul  did,  in  the 
opinion  of  some.  Whilst  there  is  nothing  in  this  Scrip- 
ture which,  from  what  we  know  of  Cerinthus,  he  could 
not  have  written,  the  Christology  of  the  Apocalypse 
does  not  exclude  but  clearly  includes  that  of  Cerinthus, 
as  transmitted  by  Irengeiis.  Nor  do  we  know  that  any- 
body else  preached  such  a  doctrine.  Cerinthus  (and 
Papias)  expected  a  Messianic  Millennium,  the  late  trans- 
mitted details  of  which  probably  originated  in  a  carnal 
explanation  of  what  Cerinthus  may  have  referred  to  the 
spiritual  marriage  feast  of  the  Lamb  of  God.  The  con- 
nection of  the  doctrine  of  Cerinthus  and  of  the  Apo- 
calypse of  John  with  the  Eastern  and  Essenic  gnosis  is 
undeniable,  to  which  latter  also  belonged  the  scheme  of 
a  Messianic  kingdom  of  heaven,  forming  the  seventh 
thousand  of  years.  This  scheme  was  indirectly  recog- 
nised by  Ezra,  since  the  chronology  from  Adam  to 
Moses  lias  been  so  arranged  as  to  place  five  links 
between  them,  and  thus  to  make  Moses  the  seventh 
organ  of  oral  tradition  from  Adam.1 

Whoever  may  have  been  the  author   of  the  Eeve- 
lation    of  John,    no    more  than   the  Book    of   Daniel 

1  Adam,  Methuselah,  Shem,  Isaac,  Levi,  Jochebed,  Moses ;  comp.  the 
Millennial  scheme,  the  centre  of  which  is  the  year  B.C.  586,  pp.  288,  289. 


ESDRAS    OR    EZRA. — BARNABAS    OR    BARSABAS.  325 

does  it  contain  any  prophecy.  The  spirit  of  pro- 
phecy has  been  checked  by  the  misleading  influences 
of  dogma. 

The  Apocalypse  of  Esdras,  or  Ezra,  first  written  in 
Greek,  and  of  Eoman  origin,  cited  by  the  author  of  the 
ascension  of  Moses,  was  composed  before  a.d.  44,  and 
probably  about  B.C.  30.  The  eagle-vision  can  only  be 
referred  to  the  Greek  empire,  to  the  Seleucidian  kings 
followed  by  the  Eoman  triumvirate.1  The  Messianic 
kingdom  is  not  to  last  a  thousand  years,  but  only  400. 
It  will  be  inaugurated  by  the  descent  of  the  Angel- 
Messiah  (not  Jesus),  who  is  higher  than  all  angels,  and 
will  descend  on  Zion  with  thousands  of  angels  in  his 
train. 

The  Epistle  of  Barnabas  was  composed  by  the 
Apostle  Barnabas  some  time  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  essentially  in  the  form  we  possess  it,  according 
to  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  ancient  Church.  The 
text  known  to  us  is  cited,  as  written  by  the  Levite  of 
Cyprus,  seven  times  by  Clement  of  Alexandria  and 
thrice  by  Origen,  whilst  Eusebius  and  Jerome  regard 
the  Epistle  as  authentic.  Not  even  a  doubt  is  mentioned 
about  the  fellow-worker  of  Paul  having  written  this 
Epistle,  although  it  has  probably  been  revised  in  later 
times.  The  arguments  brought  forward  by  modern 
critics  against  the  Apostolic  source  of  this  Epistle  are  a 
very  natural  upshot  from  the  artificially  prepared  soil, 
on  which  the  dogmatic  structure  of  the  Christian 
Church  has  been  erected.  The  fundamental  principle  of 
the  Acts  is  not  to  admit  the  presence  of  two  antago- 
nistic parties  at  the  beginning  of  the  Apostolic  age,  the 
one  headed  by  Peter  and  James,  the  other  by  Paul, 
and  to  exclude  the  Essenic  element  from  the  Apo- 
stolic Church.  According  to  the  Acts,  Barnabas  was 
chosen  and  sent  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  which  reason  he 
received  Apostolic  rank.  The  author  of  the  Epistle  of 
1  Hilgenfeld,  Zeitschriftf.  v\  T.  1878,  III.,  p.  400  f. 


320  THE    GNOSIS. 

Barnabas  was  evidently  an  Essene,  and  denied  that  Christ 
was  the  Son  of  David  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God.  The 
writer,  whose  Christology  seems  to  have  been  akin  to 
that  of  Cerinthns,  could  not  be  acknowleged  as  the 
twelfth  Apostle,  and  as  the  Levite  of  Cyprus  and  one 
of  the  Seventy,  although  the  ancient  Church  had  done 
so  and  called  him  an  apostle.1 

The  arguments  invented  by  modern  criticism  for 
the  purpose  of  correcting  a  Clement  of  Alexandria,  an 
Origen,  and  the  Church-historian  Eusebius,  are  chiefly 
based  on  the  supposition  that  a  learned  Levite  could 
not  have  had  so  incorrect  notions  of  the  Mosaic  law 
and  its  institutions  as  the  writer  of  this  scripture  be- 
trays.2 But  apart  from  the  impossibility  of  admitting 
that  the  highest  authorities  of  Christian  antiquity  could 
have  overlooked  or  not  sufficiently  weighed  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  evident  Essenic  character  of  the  Epistle 
leads  us  to  regard  Barnabas  as  a  Levite  who  had  joined 
the  Essenic  association,  having  been  brought  up  with 
Paul  under  Gamaliel,  according  to  late  recorded  Cyprian 
tradition.  As  an  Essene,  Barnabas  would  not  consider 
himself  bound  by  the  letter  of  Scripture,  and  his  Epistle 
proves  that,  like  the  Essenes,  he  regarded  not  the 
literal  but  the  figurative  sense  of  the  law  and  its  in- 
stitutions as  conveying  the  full  truth. 

Here  again  we  have  a  double  name,  for  Barnabas 
was  called  Joseph,  and  received,  from  the  Apostles,  we 
are  told,  the  surname  of  Barnabas,  or  '  son  of  pro- 
phecy '  or  '  admonition.'  He  has  on  sufficient  grounds 
been  identified  with  Joseph  Barsabas,  who,  with  Matthias, 
was  set  up  as  a  candidate  for  the  twelfth  apostleship, 
between  the  fortieth  and  the  fiftieth  day  after  the  re- 
surrection of  Christ,  according  to  the  Acts.  This  Joseph 
belonged    to    those   men   who    had  '  companied '  with 

1  Ens.  //.  E.  i.  12;  comp.  iii.  25;  Clem.  Alex.  8trom.il  7,  20;  v.  10. 

2  Bishop  von  Ilefele,  Das  $e7vd$chreiben  des  Apostels  Barnabas ;  Heberle, 
in  Ilerzop-'s  Cyld<>piidic, 


BAENABAS   OR   BARSABAS.  327 

the  Apostles  all  the  time  that  the  Lord  Jesus  '  went  in 
and  out '  among  them,  beginning  from  the  baptism  of 
John,  unto  the  same  day  that  he  was  taken  up  from 
them.  Such  a  change  of  letters  is  not  unusual,  and 
moreover  the  Codex  D  and  the  Ethiopian  translation 
read,  in  the  passage  quoted,  Barnabas  instead  of  Barsa- 
bas.  In  the  Eecognitions  the  name  of  Barnabas,  not 
of  Barsabas,  is  identified  with  that  of  Matthias.  This 
leads  to  the  supposition  that  the  substitution  in  the 
Acts  of  Matthias  for  Barnabas  the  Essene  is  not  his- 
torical.1 Indeed  the  connection  of  Essenes  with  the 
aboriginal  Church  would  have  undermined  the  funda- 
mental  principle  of  the  Acts,  as  it  would  have  proved 
the  existence  of  Oriental  and  Gnostic  elements  in  the 
Church. 

Like  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  Barnabas  aims  at 
the  conversion  of  his  readers,  probably  the  Judaising 
party  in  Alexandria  to  which  Apollos  had  referred,2  to 
a  higher  because  typical  interpretation  of  the  law, 
to  the  new  covenant  dimly  foreshadowed  by  the  old,  to 
the  spiritual  fulfilment  of  all  which  seemed  prophetic  in 
Judaism.  At  the  same  time  the  Apostle  insists  on  that 
particularist  Judaism  which  excluded  the  Gentiles,  as  all 
Essenes  or  disciples  of  John  in  Palestine  seem  to  have 
done,  in  contradistinction  to  the  fundamental  doctrine 
of  the  universalist  Therapeuts.  Because  Paul  represented 
the  doctrines  of  the  latter,  Barnabas  separated  from 
him,  and  so  did  Mark,  the  nephew  or  sister's-son  of 
Barnabas,  and  the  reported  first  bishop  of  the  Alex- 
andrian Church.  If  Barnabas  was  in  Alexandria  and  in 
Rome  before  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  as  the  tradition 
in    the    pseudo-Clementines   implies,    he   and  probably 

1  Acts  1.21 -25;  Recog.  i.  60  ;  Strom,  ii.  20;  Hipp.  (?)  ii.  App. 

2  Barnabas  is  said  to  have  been  as  a  direct  disciple  of  Jesus  in  Alexan- 
dria, according  to  the  tradition  recorded  in  the  Homilies  (i.  6-9)  and 
Recognitions  (l.  7).  If  the  latter  gives  the  more  correct  and  the  original 
tradition,  the  preacher  in  Rome,  of  whom  the  Homilies  speak,  was  Barnabas, 
and  he  pointed  out  to  Clement  of  Rome  the  new  doctrine. 


328  THE    GNOSIS. 

Mark  were  teachers  in  Alexandria  before  Apollos 
wrote,  if  he  did,  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  or  Alexan- 
drians, attributed  to  Barnabas  by  Tertnllian ; 1  that  is, 
the  Epistle  to  the  Jewish  Christian  part  of  the  Alex- 
andrian Church. 

The  Christology  of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  differs 
not  only  in  the  question  about  the  admission  of  Gentiles 
from  that  of  Paid  and  Apollos.  Barnabas,  like  these, 
regards  Christ  as  the  Angel-Messiah,  though,  unlike 
Paul  and  Apollos  and  the  John  of  the  Apocalypse,  he 
denies  the  Davidic  descent  of  Christ-Jesus.  Yet  he 
distinguishes  Christ  from  Jesus  by  asserting  that 
his  flesh  was  given  up  '  to  corruption,'  after  he  had 
offered  it  for  the  sins  of  his  people.  Jesus  revealed  '  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead,'  but  it  is  not  said  he  rose 
bodily.  '  Jesus,  who  was  manifested  both  by  type 
and  in  the  flesh,  is  not  the  Son  of  man,  but  the  Son  of 
God ;  since,  therefore,  they  were  to  say  that  Christ  was 
the  son  of  David,  fearing^and  understanding  the  error  of 
the  wicked  (Jews),  he  saith  :  "  The  Lord  said  unto  my 
Lord,  Sit  at  my  right  hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies 
thy  footstool.'"  Thus  also  Isaiah,  by  a  falsified  text,  is 
asserted  to  have  referred  words  to  Christ,  recorded  to 
have  been  addressed  to  Cyrus  the  Anointed.  Barnabas 
tries  to  prove  that  the  wicked  Jews  cannot  be  the  heirs 
of  the  covenant,  since  '  the  tables  of  the  testament  of 
the  Lord '  were  broken,  after  Moses  had  received 
them  '  written  in  the  spirit  by  the  finger  of  the  hand 
of  the  Lord.'  But  '  learn  now  how  We  (the  good 
Jews)  received  it.  Moses  received  as  a  servant,  but  the 
Lord  himself,  having  suffered  in  our  behalf,  hath  given 
it  to  us,  that  we  should  be  the  people  of  inheritance.' 
In  another  passage  Christ  is  called  '  Lord  of  all  the 
world,  to  whom  God  said  at  the  foundation  of  the 

1  Partly  recognised  in  the  Churches  under  the  title  of  '  The  Epistle  of 
Barnabas  to  the  Hebrews,'  which  is  probably  the  *  Epistle  of  Barnabas ' 
referred  to  in  the  Canon  of  Muratori  (Hilgenfeld,  /.  c.  109). 


THE   TWELVE   APOSTLES   AS   GREAT   SINNERS.  329 

world,  Let  us  make  man  after  our  image,  and  after  our 

likeness.'1 

'The  prophets,  having   obtained  grace  from  Him, 

prophesied  concerning  Him ;  and  He  (since  it  behoved 

Him  to  appear  in  the  flesh),  that  He  might  abolish  death, 

and   reveal  the  resurrection    from   the  dead,  endured 

(what  and  as  He  did),  in  order  that  He  might  fulfil  the 

promise  made  unto  the  fathers,  and  by  preparing  a  new 

people  for  Himself  might   show,  whilst  He  dwelt  on 

earth,  that  He,  when  He  has  raised  mankind,  will  also 

judge  them.     Moreover,  teaching  Israel,  and  doing  so 

great  miracles  and  signs,  He  preached   (the  truth)  to 

him,  and  greatly  loved   him.     But  when  lie  chose  His 

own  apostles  who  were  to  preach  His  gospel  (He  did  so 

from  among  those)  who  were  sinners  above  all  sin,  that 

He  might  show  He  came  "not  to  call  the  righteous  but 

sinners  to  repentance."     Then  He  manifested  himself 

to  be  the  Son  of  God.     For  if  He  had  not  come  in  the 

flesh,  how  could  men  have  been  saved  by  beholding 

Him  ?    Since  looking  upon  the  sun  which  is  to  cease  to 

exist,  and  is  the  work  of  His  hands,  their  eyes  are  not 

able  to  bear  his  rays.     The  Son  of  God  therefore  came 

in  the  flesh  with  this  view,  that  He  might  bring  to  a 

head  the  sum  of  their  sins,  who  had  persecuted  His 

prophets  to    the   death.     For   this  purpose,   then,  He 

endured.'      'He  himself  willed  thus  to    suffer,    for  it 

was  necessary  that  He  should  suffer  on  the  tree.     For, 

says  he  who  prophesies  regarding  Him  :  "  Spare  my 

soul  from    the  sword,  fasten   my  flesh  with  nails,  for 

the   assemblies   of   the  wicked   have  risen,  up    against 

me.'"2 

The  sufferings  of  Christ,  necessary  for  salvation, 
were  *  foreshown '  by  the  prophets.  Pre-eminently 
among  the  numerous  references  to  Messianically  inter- 

1  We  give  the  text  contained  in  The  Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library, 
where  the  Codex  Sinaiticus  and  the  edition  of  Ililgenfeld  have  been  con- 
sulted. 

2  Barn,  xii.-xiv.,  v.  vi. ;  comp.  Ps.  xxii.  21,  17,  cix.  120. 


330  THE    GNOSIS. 

pre  ted  passages  in  Scripture  is  that  about  the  servant 
of  God  slain  like  a  lamb,  which  with  the  offering  up 
of  Isaac  is  enumerated  among  the  types  of  Christ's 
vicarious  sacrifice  on  the  cross.  Barnabas  finds  the 
Messianic  cross  frequently  referred  to  in  the  Old 
Testament,  by  the  side  of  the  brazen  serpent.  Those 
who  have  been  '  renewed '  by  the  remission  of  sins, 
thus  procured,  have  been  '  refashioned,'  they  belong 
to  the  '  second  fashioning '  or  creation  of  '  these  last 
days.'  This  new  creation  is  described  as  given  over 
to  Christ  before  the  foundation  of  the  earth,  and 
as  an  effect  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  implied  to  have 
been  brought  down  from  heaven  by  the  Angel- 
Messiah,  who  will  return  after  6,000  years,  when  the 
finishing  of  all  things  (the  Millennium)  will  take  place. 
Like  the  cross,  baptism  has  been  prefigured  in  the  Old 
Testament.  God  has  described  both  '  the  water  (of 
baptism)  and  the  cross '  in  the  first  Psalm,  as  also  by 
Zephaniah  and  Ezechiel.1 

Like  Apollos  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  of  Alex- 
dria,  to  whom  Barnabas  seems  to  have  addressed  this 
Epistle,  a  more  perfect  knowledge,  a  '  more  profound 
gift,'  or  '  the  engrafted  spiritual  gift,'  a  gnosis  is  referred 
to,  which  Christ  lias  '  put  within  '  the  newly  created  or 
newborn,  in  those  who  are  called  the  possessors  of  '  the 
Spirit  poured  forth  from  the  rich  Lord  of  love,'  who 
brought  it.  The  '  knowledge  hid  in  parables,'  about 
8  things  present  or  future,'  the  readers  of  the  Epistle 
cannot  understand,  and  this  '  wisdom  and  understanding 
of  secret  things '  has  been  '  placed  in  us  '  by  our  blessed 

1  Barn.  v.  vii.  xi.  xii.  vi.  xv.  ;  Vs.  i.  3-6 ;  Zepli.  iii.  19;  Ezek.  xlvii. 
12.  The  many  irreconcilable  quotations  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  later 
from  the  earliest  records  of  the  words  of  Jesus,  seem  to  he  best  explained  by 
the  assumption  that  a  gnostically  reformed  version  of  the  Scriptures  formed 
part  of  the  Scripture-collection  of  the  Essenes  and  Therapeuts,  which  was 
utilised,  as  was  the  Septuagint,  in  the  composition  of  our  Gospels  and  of 
Pauline  Epistles,  according  to  Eusebius.  Comp.  TIebr.  vii.  27,  ix.  3,  4,  and 
the  quotations  in  the  writings  of  Justin  Martyr. 


ESSEXIC   CHARACTER   OF   THE    EPISTLE    OF    BARNABAS.      331 

Lord.  Barnabas  asserts  that  these  mysteries  were  not 
made  known  to  Israelites  proper,  or  Hebrews,  who  were 
'  abandoned,'  for  '  as  it  is  written '  (in  some  Gospel) 
'  many  are  called  but  few  are  chosen.' x 

Essenic  are  the  following  doctrines  in  the  Epistle 
of  Barnabas.  The  Angel-Messiah  as  personal  and  abo- 
riginal type  of  humanity  ;  the  distinction  between  a  spiri- 
tual and  a  material  world,  as  of  a  way  of  light  from 
a  way  of  darkness ;  the  distinction  of  a  celestial  from 
a  terrestrial  Messiah  ;  the  figurative  interpretation  of 
Scripture  ;  the  secret  tradition  or  gnosis  of  the  Initiated, 
connected  with  the  Spirit  of  God  brought  by  the  Messiah  ; 
the  abolition  of  bloody  sacrifices,  and  the  typical  inter- 
pretation of  those  commanded  by  the  law  ;  the  injunc- 
tion to  be  spiritually  minded,  as  a  '  perfect  temple  to 
God '  in  which  he  dwells  and  prophesies ;  the  injunctions 
not  '  to  stretch  forth  the  hand '  or  to  swear ;  to  give 
alms ;  to  '  communicate  in  all  things '  with  the  neigh- 
bour, not  calling  things  one's  own,  inasmuch  as  '  par- 
takers in  common  of  things  which  are  incorruptible ' 
ought  also  to  be  '  of  those  things  which  are  corruptible  ' ; 
not  to  be  hasty  with  the  tongue,  and  '  as  far  as  possible  ' 
to  be  '  pure  in  the  soul ' ;  to  '  preserve  '  what  has  been 
received  (the  secret  things),  'neither  adding  to  it  or 
taking  from  it ' ;  to  '  pacify '  those  that  contend  '  by 
bringing  them  together ' ;  to  '  confess '  one's  sins,  not 
going  '  to  prayer  with  an  evil  conscience.' 

Essenic  is  the  injunction  not,  '  by  retiring  apart,  to 
live  a  solitary  life,'  as  if '  already  fully  justified,'  but  to 
come  together  '  in  one  place,'  making  '  common  inquiry  ' 
concerning  what  tends  to  the  general  welfare.  Essenic 
in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  is  also  the  water-baptism  as 
a  symbol  of  spiritual  purity,  and  the  rigid  keeping  of 
the  Sabbath,  as  a  type  of  the  seventh  thousand  of  years, 
of  '  the  day  of  the  Lord  '  which  shall  be  *  as  a  thousand 
years.'     The  return  of  the  Son  of  God  will  lead  to  the 

1  Barn.  ix.  I.  xvii.  vi.  it.  Matt.  xx.  1G;  xxii.  14;  comp.  4  Esdr.  viii.  3. 


332  THE    GNOSIS. 

judgment,  to  cosmical  changes,  and  to  the  'beginning  of 
the  eighth  day;'  that  is,  'a  beginning  of  another  world.' 
The  eighth  day  was  by  Barnabas  held  to  be  a  memorial 
of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  which  took  place  on  that 
day,  or  the  first  day  of  the  week.    Nothing  is  said  of  its 
having  been  '  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,' 
but  this  is  indirectly  implied  by  the  comparison  drawn 
between  the  death  of  Jesus  and  the  slaying  of  the  ram 
or  lamb  in  the  place  of  Isaac,  with  which  the  slaying 
of  the  Paschal  lamb  by  Moses  seemed  to  be  connected. 
We  are  perhaps  justified  in  regarding  the  Christology 
of  Barnabas  as  identical  with  that  of  Paul,  and  to  explain 
the  separation  of  the  former  from  the  latter  exclusively 
by  the  dissension  about  admitting  the  Gentiles.    Yet  by 
the  denial  of  the  Davidic  descent  of  Jesus,  Barnabas 
taught  a  different  doctrine  than  that  in  Paul's  Epistles. 
Moreover,    he   believed    either,    like    Cerinthus,  in    a 
double  Messianic  personality,  one  angelic  one  human, 
or,  like  Simon  Magus,  in   a   mere   apparent  humanity 
of  Jesus.     It  is  probable  enough  that  both  Paul  and 
Barnabas  were  pupils   of  Gamaliel,  as  reported.     We 
tried  to  show  that  Gamaliel  as  a  leading   Eabbi  stood 
in  connection  with  that  Essenic   and  Medo-Chaldsean 
or,  Magian  tradition  of  which  the  Book  of  Daniel  is  the 
earliest  known  exponent.     Barnabas,  the  Palestinian  Es- 
sene,  and  Paul,  the  preacher  of  Therapeutic  doctrines,  had 
this  in  common,  that  both  regarded  Jesus  as  the  Angel  of 
God  who  can  pardon  transgressions,  and  whose  resurrec- 
tion was  typified.  Passing  over  as  perhaps  unhistorical  the 
account  in  the  Acts  about  the  first  journey  of  Paul  and 
Barnabas  from  Antioch  to  Jerusalem,  of  which  Paul  says 
nothing,  the  well-attested  facts  remain,  that  Barnabas,  at 
the  bidding  of  the  Twelve  or  not,  introduced  Paul  to  the 
Church  at  Antioch  ;  that  Barnabas  and  Peter  were  at 
Antioch  by  Paul  called  dissembling  Jews  ;  that  when 
seventeen  years  after  his  conversion  to  the  faith  of  Stephen 
(the  Therapeut)  Paul  avms  introduced  by  Barnabas  to  the 


BARNABAS   AND   THE   JOHN    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE.        333 

Apostles  at  Jerusalem,  they  were  all  afraid  of  him,  but 
recognised  Paul  and  Barnabas  as  Apostles  among  the 
Gentiles ;  and  that  at  Antioch  the  contention  between  Paul 
and  Barnabas  was  '  so  sharp,  that  they  parted  asunder,' 
and  that  Barnabas  and  Mark  returned  to  Cyprus. 

Barnabas  seems  to  have  stood  nearer  to  the '  John  '  of 
the  Apocalypse,  to  which  the  Epistle  refers  indirectly, 
than  to  Paul,  to  whose  writings  there  is  not  any  direct 
reference.  Similarity  of  expression,  and  such  views  as 
angels  of  Satan,  can  be  easily  traced  back  to  a  common 
source,  such  as  the  teaching  of  Gamaliel.  Unlike  the 
Esdras  of  the  Apocalypse,  Barnabas  wrote  in  the  time  of 
Domitian,  whom  he  regarded  as 4  the  last  stumbling-block.' 
After  him  he  expected  the  Beloved  of  God  to  come  to 
his  inheritance,  at  the  end  of  6,000  years  from  the 
creation  of  the  world.  Then  'the  temple  of  God  shall 
be  built  in  glory,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.' 1 

The  Epistles  of  John. 

The  distinction  between  a  true  and  a  false  know- 
ledge or  gnosis  can  be  shown  to  have  been  already 
made  in  the  first  century,  and  to  have  centred  in 
the  denial  of  the  human  nature  of  Christ-Jesus.  The 
Docetics  of  the  second  century  stood  in  direct  con- 
nection with  the  Essenes  whose  doctrines  were  similar 
to  those  of  Simon  Magus  and  Barnabas.  We  regard  this 
false  doctrine  of  the  Apostolic  and  of  the  after- Apostolic 
age  as  the  original  secret  doctrine  of  the  Essenes. 
It  was  in  so  far  opposed  by  Paul,  as  he  clearly  acknow- 
ledged, at  least  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans,  that  the  same 
Jesus  Christ  or  Christ-Jesus  was  Son  of  God  according 
to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  and  was  son  of  David  according 
to  the  flesh.  On  that  basis  Paul's  doctrine  was  recog- 
nised by  the  Church. 

The  Apostle  John,  or  rather  John  the  presbyter,  as 

1  Barn.  iv.  xvi.     This  settles  the  year  97  for  its  composition ;  comp. 
Hilgenfeld,  I.  c.  544,  Note  1. 


334  THE    GXOSIS. 

lie  called  himself,  wrote  his  three  Epistles  probably  from 
Epliesus,  and  perhaps  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, since  he  writes,  '  it  is  the  last  time,'  which  may 
be  referred  to  the  Jewish  Church  and  nation.  John's 
principal  object  is  to  oppose  those  who  in  '  the  spirit  of 
Antichrist,'  and  as  '  Antichrists,'  denied  in  those  Apo- 
stolic days  that  Christ  has  come  'in  the  flesh.'  His  con- 
temporaries, Barnabas  and  Cerinthus,  distinguished 
between  Jesus  and  Christ,  thus  denying  the  presence  in 
all  ages  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  mankind.  The  Apostle 
calls  this  the  denial  of  '  the  Father  and  the  Son.' 

'  The  false  teachers  went  out  from  us,  but  were 
not  of  us.'  Thus  it  seems  to  be  implied  that  the 
Essenes  had  separated  from  the  recognised  Judaism 
ever  since  they  formed  the  third  or  independent 
party  among  the  Jews,  which  they  did  at  least  about 
150  years  before  the  birth  of  Jesus.  As  they  had 
not  continued  with  the  Pharisees  who  sat  in  the  seat  of 
Moses,  so  they  had  not  continued  with  those  who,  like 
John,  had  4  seen  and  heard,'  who  had  •  looked  upon,'  and 
whose  '  hands  handled,'  the  bodily  manifestation  or  ap- 
pearing, that  is,  the  incarnation  of  '  the  Word  of  Life.' 
That  Word  or  Logos  is  by  John  described  as  a  spiritual 
substance,  as  the  seed  or  sperma,  which  if  it  \  abide  '  in 
man,  causes  him  to  be '  born  of  [from]  God,'  and  prevents 
him  from  sinning.1 

The  false  teachers,  the  '  many  Antichrists '  who  had 
even  then  arisen,  that  is,  in  the  Apostolic  age,  are  de- 
scribed by  the  Apostle  as  if  they  were  Essenes.  What 
he  writes  against  their  doctrine  of  Christ  confirms  the 
fact  we  tried  to  establish,  that  the  secret  tradition  of 
the  Essenes  included  the  doctrine  of  an  Angel  who 
would  be  manifested  on  earth  as  Messiah,  but  not  as  a 
human  embodiment  of  the  Word  or  Spirit  of  God.  The 
very  commencement  of  the  First  Epistle  of  John  shows 
that  the  Apostle  found  it  necessary  to  testify,  that  he 

1  1  John  ii.  18-22  ;  iv.  3 ;  iii.  9. 


THE    APOSTLE    JOHN    AGAINST   THE    ESSENES.  335 

and  his  fellow-workers  had  seen  Jesns  Christ  with  their 
eyes,  not  as  a  bodiless  spirit,  as  a  phantom,  but  as  a 
human  reality,  that  their  hands  had  '  handled  '  the  Word 
of  Life,  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 

Like  James,  John  does  not  regard  the  Word  in  the 
heart  of  man,  'his  seed,'  as  a  new  spiritual  faculty  or  new 
gift  of  God,  which  had  come  to  man  after  the  incarnation 
and  sacrificial  death  of  Jesus,  according  to  Paul's  decla- 
ration. The  Word  of  Life  is  '  the  engrafted  word  '  of 
which  James  writes  that  it  is  '  able  to  save  the  soul ; ' 
it  is  '  the  word  of  God  '  which  in  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter 
is  described  as  'the  imperishable  seed,'  living  and  abiding, 
by  which  man  is  born  again,  and  which  Word  Peter  had 
preached  by  the  gospel.  Neither  John,  Peter,  nor  James 
distinguishes  this  Word,  or  Christ,  from  '  the  spirit  of 
promise,'  which  came  not  till  after  the  atonement 
by  the  death  of  Jesus  on  the  cross,  according  to  Paul's 
doctrine.1 

The  heretics  against  whom  John  writes  his  Epistles, 
especially  his  First  Epistle,  denied  that  Christ  had  come 
in  flesh  and  blood  ;  they  held  that  he  came  '  in  water 
only,'  that  is,  that  Christ  or  the  Spirit  of  God  was  not 
in  Jesus  at  his  birth,  but  descended  and  rested  on  him 
at  his  baptism.  The  Apostle  declares  in  opposition  to 
these  false  teachers,  that  Christ  came  also  '  in  the  blood.' 
Those  whom  the  Apostle  John  calls  Antichrists  dis- 
tinguished Christ  from  Jesus,  as  Cerinthus  and  the 
writer  of  the  Apocalypse  of  '  John  '  has  done.  These 
teachers  of  a  new  and  false  doctrine  asserted  to  possess 
a  knowledge  or  gnosis  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  they  kept 
not  'his  commandments.'  The  contents  of  the  First 
Epistle  of  John  suggest  with  sufficient  clearness,  that 
this  gnosis  which  the  Apostle  John  opposes  is  the  secret 
tradition  of  the  Essenes.  From  this  high  probability 
we  are  led  to  conjecture  that  the  Essenes  denied  Christ's 
coining  in  the   flesh.     This  the  writings  of  Philo  con- 

1  I  Peter  i.  23 ;  James  i.  18,  21 ;  Rom.  x.  5-9. 


336  THE    GXOSIS. 

firm,  who  knew  all  about  the  Essenes,  and  held  them 
in  high  estimation,  even  if  he  was  not  a  Therapeutic 
Essene.  Philo  says  nothing  of  a  Messianic  incarnation 
or  atonement.  Like  Simon  and  apparently  Barnabas, 
the  Essenes  denied  the  human  nature  of  Christ-Jesus, 
regarding  him  as  the  Angel-Messiah,  as  absolutely  super- 
natural, not  as  an  incarnation  of  the  Angel  of  God,  but 
as  One  come  down  from  heaven,  '  apparently  as  man, 
yet  not  as  man,'  as  '  Son  of  God,  but  not  as  Son  of  man.' 
It  is  also  Essenic  what  John  writes  about  the  false 
gnostics  in  his  time  who  hated  their  brethren.  For 
the  separatist  Essenes,  not  the  Therapeuts,  with  whom 
we  connected  Paul,  hated  their  brethren  the  Gentiles, 
and  denied  that  Christ  is  also  '  a  propitiation '  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world.1 

The  false  teachers  in  the  time  of  the  Apostle  John 
held,  like  the  Essenes,  that  they  did  not  transgress 
against  the  law  according  to  its  literal  interpretation, 
inasmuch  as  by  a  figurative  and  spiritual  interpretation 
of  the  letter  they  considered  themselves  entitled  to  dis- 
regard the  Commandments  which  the  letter  of  the  law 
imposed.  By  so  doing  they  did  not  regard  themselves 
as  sinning ;  they  said  that  they  had  no  sin.  John 
opposes  these  Essenic  gnostics  by  saying,  that  c  the 
transgression  of  the  law  is  sin,'  that  '  all  unrighteousness 
is  sin,'  that  i  he  that  doeth  sin  is  of  the  devil,  because 
the  devil  sinneth  from  the  beginning  ;  but  that  he  that 
doeth  righteousness  is  righteous,  even  as  He  [Jesus 
Christ]  is  righteous.'  Every  righteous  man  '  is  of  God.' 
Thus  the  Apostle  John  acknowledges  the  existence  of 
the  Word  from  the  beginning,  and  of  the  devil  from  the 
beginning  ;  he  regards  neither  as  a  personality,  but  he 
distinguishes  '  the  children  of  God '  from  '  the  children 
of  the  devil.'  This  spiritual  dualism,  of  Oriental  origin, 
was  an  apostolic  doctrine.     '  For  this  purpose  the  Son 

1  John  v.  6;  ii.  9,  11. 


J01IX    AND    PETER    ON    CHRIST.  337 

of  God  was  manifested,  that  he  might  destroy  the  works 
of  the  devil,'  that  is,  of  the  evil  spirit.1 

'  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,'  Christ,  the 
Word  or  Spirit  of  God,  was  manifested  in  Jesus,  in  flesh 
and  blood.  God  sent  that  Divine  Power,  God  '  sent  His 
Son  as  a  propitiation  for  our  sins.'  As  in  the  Angel, 
who  can  pardon  sin,  so  in  Jesus  was  the  name  or  Spirit 
of  God.  Therefore  he  could  not  sin,  he  was  '  begotten 
of  God  '  and  '  sinneth  not,'  for  '  he  that  hath  been 
begotten  of  God,  he  keepeth  [preserveth]  himself,  and 
the  wicked  one  [the  evil  spirit]  toucheth  him  not.' 
God  abode  with  Jesus,  and  the  love  of  him  was  perfected 
in  him.  God  had  given  to  Jesus,  as  he  has  given  to 
us,  '  of  his  Spirit,'  and  therein  Jesus  knew  and  '  know 
we,  that  we  abide  in  him  and  he  in  us.' 

'  This  is  the  witness  :  that  God  gave  to  us  eternal 
life,  and  this  life  is  in  His  Son.'  The  Apostle  does  not 
say  that  this  life,  the  Word  of  Life,  '  that  which  was 
from  the  beginning,'  was  the  premundane  Son  of  God  ; 
but  he  says  that  this  anointing  power  of  God  is  '  in  '  his 
Son,  in  Jesus  the  Anointed.  Thus  John's  testimony  on 
the  true  doctrine  of  Christ  is  in  perfect  harmony  with 
the  confession  of  Peter,  that  the  man  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
has  by  God  been  anointed  '  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
with  power.'  In  this  sense  John  testifies  '  that  the 
Father  hath  sent  the  Son  as  Saviour  of  the  world.' 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  because  his  Spirit  or  Word 
abode  '  in  him  and  he  in  God.'  So  does  God  abide  in 
every  man  who  confesses  this ;  every  such  believer 
abides  in  God.  '  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God 
hath  the  witness  in  him.'2 

The  Divine  Sonship  is  abiding  communion  and  life 
in  the  Spirit  of  God.  That  Word  or  Spirit  which  abides 
in  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  is  God  ;  God  is  a  Spirit.     In 

1  1  John  i.  8 ;  iii.  4-10 ;  comp.  for  the  denial  of  siu  by  Gnostics,  Clem. 
Alex.  Excerpt  a  ex-propheticis,  §15;  Opp.  p.  903;  Hilgeniield,  I.e.  688. 

2  1  John  iii.  5;  iv.  10-15;  v.  18;  v.  10. 

Z 


338  THE    GNOSIS. 

an  evidently  genuine  passage  which  is  omitted,  purposely 
or  not,  in  many  ancient  manuscripts,  the  Spirit  of  God 
in  man  is  clearly  indicated  to  be  the  Father  and  also  to 
be  the  Son  :  '  Whosoever  denieth  the  Son,  neither  hath 
he  the  Father  ;  he  that  confesseth  the  Son,  hath  the 
Father  also.'  Again  :  '  If  that  which  ye  heard  from  the 
beginning  abide  in  you,  ye  also  shall  abide  in  the  Son 
and  in  the  Father.'  Therefore  the  Apostle  writes  :  '  We 
are  in  the  true  One,  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  is 
the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.'1  It  was  necessary  to 
omit  these  words  after  the  introduction  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  three  eternal  Persons,  of  which  the  Bible  knows 
nothing.  The  Word  which  was  in  the  beginning,  which 
was  in  mankind,  and  also  in  Jesus,  is  the  Father.  Its 
bodily  manifestation  in  Jesus  is  called  the  Son,  who 
after  his  resurrection  became  an  advocate  with  the 
Father. 

Nothing  is  said  in  the  Epistles  of  John  about  a  Per- 
sonal Word  who,  as  an  angel,  was  with  God  before  the 
creation  of  the  world.  The  Word  of  Life  which  was  in 
the  beginning  can  abide  in  man ;  his  word,  his  seed, 
the  incorruptible  seed  of  the  word  of  God,  the  engrafted 
word,  is  able  to  save  the  soul.  Those  who  have  an 
'anointing  (a  Christ)  from  the  Holy  One,'  from  the 
Father,  require  '  no  new  commandment,'  they  know  all 
things,'  they  need  not  be  taught  a  figurative  interpre- 
tation of  the  Scriptures,  a  gnosis  or  deeper  and  secret 
knowledge.  The  Word  which  the  readers  of  this 
Epistle  '  have  heard  '  is  '  the  old  commandment,'  which 
they  *  had  from  the  beginning.'  Also  in  the  time  of 
Moses  that  Word  was  in  man's  heart  that  he  might  do  it. 

But  { the  law  and  the  prophets  until  John,'  him 
included,  had  prophesied  about  the  future  coming  of 
that  Word  to  the  heart  of  man,  so  that  the  true  light, 
although  actually  in  man,  could  not  shine.  It  was 
Jesus  who  showed  by  his  words  and  works  that  the 

1  1  John  ii.  23,  24 ;  v.  20. 


J0IIX   AGAINST   PAUL.  300 

Spirit  of  God  is  in  man,  that  '  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
already  come.'  The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  '  shut  up  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  against  men,'  but  some  entered  in 
nevertheless,  although  by  force  ;  they  had  to  press  into 
it,  for  it  suffered  violence.  Now,  after  the  days  of  John, 
and  since  the  days  of  Jesus,  who  drove  out  evil  spirits 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  did  others  in  Israel,  his  be- 
loved disciple,  the  Apostle  John,  could  write  '  a  new 
commandment,  which  thing  is  true  in  him  (in  Jesus 
Christ)  and  in  you,  because  the  darkness  is  passing  away, 
and  the  true  light  now  shineth.' x 

Jesus  did  follow  the  promptings  of  his  Word,  of 
his  seed,  therefore  he  sinned  not,  and  he  was  the 
Saviour  of  the  world,  a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  men. 
Christ,  the  Word  or  Spirit  of  God,  did  verily  come  in 
flesh  and  blood  ;  that  power  of  God  became  incarnate 
in  the  man  Jesus,  who  by  his  life,  not  by  his  sacrificial 
death,  became  a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  mankind. 
Because  the  reality  of  his  blood  was  denied,  John  writes 
that  '  the  blood  of  Jesus  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.'  This 
is  not  a  figurative  expression,  but  a  mysterious  reality. 
Whosoever  has  the  Word  of  Life,  the  Spirit  of  God, 
abidingly  in  him,  is  by  that  light  of  God  enabled  to 
'  walk  in  the  light  as  he  is  in  the  light,'  and  '  he  cannot 
sin.'  For  such  there  is  no  condemnation,  nor  need  of 
another  Saviour  than  God  himself,  inasmuch  as  that 
spiritual  fellowship  or  communion  with  God  '  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin.'  That  saving  communion  with  God  is 
the  direct  result  of  our  walking  in  the  light  as  God  is 
in  the  light.  Because  the  great  mystery  of  '  God  mani- 
fested in  the  flesh '  was  by  false  teachers  in  those  days 
denied,  because  Christ,  the  Word  of  God,  was  declared 
not  to  have  come  in  flesh  and  blood,  that  is,  because  the 
presence  of  the  Word  or  Spirit  of  God  in  man  was 
denied  ;  therefore  the  Apostle  writes,  that  c  the  blood  ' 
of  him  in  whom  is  no  sin,  that  is,  of  him  whom  God  had 

'  1  John  ii.  20,  7,  8. 
z  2 


340  THE    GNOSIS. 

anointed  with  his  Spirit,  that  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
the  Son  of  God  cleanse th  us  from  all  sin.  If  the  truth 
is  in  us,  and  '  if  we  confess  our  sins,'  then  God  '  is  faith- 
ful and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us 
from  all  unrighteousness.'  Thus  it  is  God  himself,  he 
who  '  is  light,'  God  manifested  in  flesh  and  blood,  who 
'  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin,'  who  is  our  Saviour.  But 
because  Jesus,  by  his  merit,  is  the  perfect  organ  of 
God's  spirit,  is  the  incarnation  of  God,  therefore  what 
is  said  of  the  Father  can  be  said  of  the  Son  also.  It  is 
God  who  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin  and  who  gives  to  us 
eternal  life.  This  forgiveness  of  sin,  this  life  '  is  in  his 
Son,'  in  Jesus  the  Christ. 

In  order  to  teach  by  word  and  deed  the  old  com- 
mandment, that  the  Word  of  God  is  in  man's  heart  that 
he  may  do  it — which  commandment  had  become  a  dead 
letter  ;  in  order  to  teach  the  new  commandment,  the 
thing  which  is  true  in  him  and  in  mankind  ;  in  order 
tli at  the  self-imposed  darkness  might  pass  away  and  the 
God-granted  true  light  might  shine,  Jesus  had  to  tread 
a  forbidden  path  and  to  lay  down  his  life  for  us.  Thus 
he  enabled  us  to  perceive  the  love  of  God.  For  God 
was  in  him,  and  God  is  love.  The  followers  of  Jesus 
ought — if  necessary — to  lay  down  their  lives  '  for  the 
brethren.' 

In  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostle  John  not  a  word  is 
said  about  a  sacrificial  or  vicarious  death  of  Jesus  on 
the  cross  as  the  Lamb  of  God.  Like  the  Epistle  of 
James,  the  Epistles  of  John  exclude  the  Paulinic  doc- 
trine of  atonement,  as  found  in  the  '  Gospel  after  John.' 

If  Paul  had  already  developed  in  his  Epistles  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  atonement,  as  a  necessary  prelimi- 
nary and  condition  of  the  coming  of  the  spirit  of  pro- 
mise ;  if  Paul  had  declared,  before  the  composition  of 
the  Epistles  of  John,  that  the  words  of  Moses  about  the 
Word  in  the  heart  of  man  were  a  prophecy  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  then  the  Apostle  John  opposed  not  only  the 


RETROSPECT.  341 

false  doctrines  of  the  Essenes,  but  also  this  doctrine  of 
Paul. 

Most  Gnostics  of  the  Apostolic  and  after-apostolic 
age  agreed  in  denying,  that  Christ,  whom  they  regarded 
as  the  Angel-Messiah,  came  in  the  flesh.  But  only 
Cerinthus  and  his  followers,  as  later  Basilides,  believed 
in  a  merely  temporary  abiding  of  Christ  in  Jesus,  in  a 
double  personality  of  the  Messiah,  distinguishing  the 
terrestrial  Jesus  from  the  celestial  Christ.  Consequently 
all  Gnostics  excluded  a  corporeal  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ,  of  which  even  Paul  said  nothing.  This  new 
or  dualistic  form  of  gnosis,  which  Paul  attacked  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  paved  the  way  for  the  unli- 
mited co-operation  of  Paul  and  the  twelve  Apostles. 
Because  of  this  distinction  between  the  Angel  Christ  and 
the  man  Jesus,  all  Apostles  would  have  opposed  the 
'  Eevelation  of  John,'  as  also  the  accounts  transmitted 
to  us  about  the  corporeal  resurrection  of  Jesus.  These 
narratives  seem  to  have  been  invented,  not  before  the 
composition  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  perhaps  with  a  view 
to  undermine  the  doctrine  of  two  contemporaneous 
Messianic  personalities,  and  to  establish  the  belief  in 
the  Oneness  of  Jesus  Christ. 


Retrospect. 

The  conception  of  a  non-material  or  spiritual  from 
a  material  world,  the  cosmic  dualism,  probably  of  East- 
Iranian  origin,  was  in  course  of  time  connected  with  a 
severe  mode  of  life,  with  an  asceticism  which  prevailed 
on  the  Ganges  and  on  the  Euphrates,  and  of  which 
there  is  no  trace  among  the  East-Iranians  or  Zoroas- 
trians.  Gautama-Buddha,  the  preacher  of  a  '  tradition 
from  beyond,'  from  a  supermundane  world,  was  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  incarnations  of  the  first  of  seven 


342  RETROSPECT. 

Archangels,  of  Serosh,  the  vicar  of  God,  and  the  first 
among  the  co-Creators  of  the  universe.  The  proved 
connection  of  Parsism  and  Buddhism  with  Essenism 
led  us  to  the  assumption  that  the  Essenes  expected  as 
Messiah  an  incarnate  angel,  like  Buddha,  the  virgin- 
son,  and  that  they  denied  his  birth  in  the  flesh  by- 
natural  means.  This  hypothesis  we  found  confirmed 
by  what  we  know  about  John  the  Baptist,  the  Ashai  or 
bather,  the  Essai  or  Essene.  So  mysterious  was  the  ap- 
parition of  this  celestial  Messiah  among  men  supposed 
to  be,  that  Philo,  probably  an  Essene,  abstains  from 
even  referring  to  a  theory  on  the  subject.  6  The  Arch- 
angelic  Word  of  God,'  the  '  Highpriest  of  the  profession,' 
the  *  second  God,'  had  appeared  to  Jacob  and  others, 
but  the  idea  is  never  expressed  by  Philo,  that  '  the  most 
ancient  Son  of  God  '  would  come  in  the  flesh,  either  as 
son  of  a  virgin,  like  Buddha,  or  otherwise.  Yet  the 
connection  with  Philo  of  Stephen,  Paul,  and  Apollos, 
the  first  proclaimers  of  the  doctrine  that  Christ  had 
become  incarnate  in  Jesus,  leads  to  the  almost  provable 
assumption  that  Philo  felt  bound  to  keep  back  some- 
thing about  the  Messianic  expectations  of  the  Essenes. 
If  they  expected  an  Angel-Messiah,  they  were  by  a 
special  oath  bound  not  to  reveal  these  expectations  to 
the  uninitiated.  Philo  certainly  did  not,  any  more  than 
John  the  Baptist  or  Josephus,  regard  his  contemporary 
Jesus  as  the  Messiah,  but  Elkesai  the  Essene  did. 

The  Essenic  doctrine  of  an  Angel-Messiah,  which 
can  be  proved  to  have  prevailed  at  the  end  of  the  Apo- 
stolic age,  must  also  have  been  recognised  by  the  Initia- 
ted among  the  Essenes  in  the  time  of  John  the  Baptist 
or  Essene,  since  they  were  bound  to  transmit  their  doc- 
trines in  no  '  other  way  '  than  they  had  «  received  them.' 
Even  in  the  fourth  century,  Epiphanius  could  attest  that 
the  Essenes  had  not  changed  in  anything.  When  John 
sent  the  deputation  to  Jesus,  he  wanted  to  know,  whether 
Jesus  was  '  he   that    should    come,'  the  Tathagata  of 


RETROSPECT.  343 

Buddhists,  the  Angel-Messiah.  The  answer  of  Jesus, 
when  connected  with  other  recorded  sayings  of  his, 
implies  that  he  did  not  regard  himself  as  an  Angel,  and 
that  he  attributed  the  works  which  he  did  to  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  man,  which  John  announced 
as  future.  John  was  a  Gnostic,  which  word  has  the  same 
meaning  as  Buddhist. 

The  gnosis  or  deeper  knowledge  of  the  Essenes  is 
of  Eastern  origin,  and  centred  in    the  doctrine    of  an 
Angel-Messiah,  of  which  there  is  no  trace  in  any  of  those 
portions    of  Hebrew    Scriptures   which   were  possibly 
written  before  the  exportation  to  Babylon,  nor  in  the 
first  three  Gospels.     We  have  traced  this  Oriental  and 
Essenic  gnosis,  about  the  Angel-Messiah,  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel  and  in  several  Jewish  and   Christian  Scriptures 
connected  with  the  same.     The  most  important  expo- 
nents of  the  new  Messianic  doctrine  are  the  speech  of 
Stephen,  the  writings  of  Paul  and  Apollos,  the  Revela- 
tion  of  John,  not  the  Apostle,  and  the  Epistle  of  Barna- 
bas.    But  they  not  all  followed  Simon  Magus  in  denying 
that  Christ  came  really  in  the  flesh. 

The  Oriental  and  Essenic  gnosis  of  pre-Christian  and 
Christian  times,  inasfar  as  it  regards  the  Angel-Messiah, 
was  acknowledged  by  the  Midrashim,  the  Targums,  and 
the  Talmud.    It  was  represented  by  John  the  Baptist, 
opposed  by  Jesus,  yet  applied  to  the  latter  by  Stephen 
and  Paul.    The  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  coupled  the  new 
Messianic  doctrine  with  the  Therapeutic  principle  of  uni- 
versality,  for  which  reason  he  was  opposed  by  the  Gentile- 
excluding  or  separatist  Essenes.     To  these  seem  to  have 
belonged  Simon  Magus  and  Barnabas,  for  also  the  latter 
in  fact  denied  the  human  nature  of  Jesus,  as  did  the 
false  teachers  against  whom  the  Apostle  John  wrote  his 
Pirst  Epistle.     Paul  promulgated  a  Gnostic,  Essenic,  and 
essentially  Buddhistic  doctrine  of  Christ,  whilst  opposing 
that  form  of  gnosis  which  Cerinthus  proclaimed,  of  which 
the  Revelation  of  John  is  the  fullest  exponent.    Though 


344  RETROSPECT. 

issued  forth  from  Judaism,  Christianity  applied  to 
Jesus,  without  his  authority,  a  Messianic  doctrine  un- 
known to  and  excluded  by  the  Old  Testament. 

The  fourth  Gospel,  still  unknown  to  Papias,  whilst 
he  knew  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  was  assimilated  in 
form  to  the  latter,  with  the  intention  of  establishing 
Apostolic  authority  for  the  Gospel  of  the  Angeh  Messiah 
and  the  Lamb. 

The  Twelve  and  Paul  agreed  to  work  together  on 
the  understanding  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  the 
rule  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  mankind,  and  that  by  this 
Divine  power  Jesus  was  of  God  anointed,  was  made 
Christ.  Thus  the  difference  between  the  doctrine  of  the 
anointed  man  and  that  of  the  anointed  Angel  was  not 
allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  practical  purposes, 
the  uniting  influences,  of  Christianity. 


General  Conclusion. — The  Roman  Church. 

Two  different  dates  are  given  in  the  Gospels  for  the 
crucifixion.  According  to  the  first  three  Gospels  it 
is  the  15th  Nisan,  not  the  day  when  the  paschal  lamb 
was  killed,  but  the  day  following  the  14th  Nisan,  on 
which  latter  day,  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  the 
crucifixion  took  place.1  This  date,  and  consequently 
the  following  '  third  day,'  the  16th  Nisan  for  the  resur- 
rection, Paul  must  have  had  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote 
about  the  '  passover  slain  for  us,'  and  about  '  the  first- 
fruits  of  them  that  slept,'  evidently  regarding  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  antitype  both  of  the  paschal  lamb  and  of 
the  paschal  omer.  '  The  Gospel  after  John '  is  alone  in 
harmony  with  Paul's  Epistles,  since  the  resurrection-day, 

1  John  xviii.  28;    comp.  xiii.  1  ;    xviii.  30:  xix.  14.     The  day  of  the 
Passover  began  with  the  evening  of  the  14th  ;  Eus.  H.E.  vii.  32,  18. 


THE    ROMAN    CHURCH.  345 

the  first  day  of  the  week,  is  here  the  third  day,  whilst 
that  same  '  first  day  of  the  week '  is  the  second  day 
after  the  crucifixion  according  to  the  first  three  Gospels. 
In  the  latter  the  narrative  of  the  crucifixion  excludes 
the  conception  that  Jesus,  on  the  day  of  His  death, 
fulfilled  in  a  literal  sense  the  type  of  the  14th,  and  by 
His  resurrection  the  type  of  the  16th  Nisan,  according  to 
a  figurative  interpretation  of  the  law.  Yet  in  these 
same  Gospels  the  resurrection-day  is  referred  to  as  the 
third  day.  It  is  obvious  that  the  first  day  of  the  week 
cannot  have  been  the  third  after  the  15th  of  the  month, 
and  also  after  the  14th  of  the  month  in  the  same  year. 

We  are  therefore  led  to  assume  at  the  outset  that 
the  passages  in  the  first  three  Gospels  about  the  resur- 
rection on  the  third  day  may  have  been  inserted  after 
the  publication  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  where  alone  the 
narrative  of  the  crucifixion  harmonises  with  the  state- 
ments of  Paul  about  the  resurrection  on  c  the  third  day 
according  to  the  Scriptures.' 

It  can  be  rendered  probable  that  this  final  re- 
vision of  the  Gospels  was  a  necessary  consequence  of 
the  paschal  dispute  which  broke  out  in  the  middle  of 
the  second  century,  when  Bishop  Polycarp,  the  asso- 
ciate of  the  Apostle  John  and  of  other  apostles,  opposed 
at  Eome,  in  the  presence  of  Pope  Anicetus,  the  Easter-rite 
of  the  Western  churches,  as  established  by  Eoman  pres- 
byterial  tradition,  and  as  supported,  in  the  main  point, 
by  the  fourth  Gospel,  which  forms  part  of  our  Canon, 
but  was  not  then  referred  to. 

Paul  distinguishes  between  the  Jewish  and  the 
Christian  passover  as  between  the  prophesying  type 
and  the  fulfilling  antitype,  that  is,  he  connects  the  slaying 
of  the  Jewish  paschal  lamb  with  the  crucifying  of  Jesus 
as  the  slain  passover  or  paschal  lamb  of  the  Christians. 
Thus  Paul  prepared  the  way  for  the  separation  of  the 
Jewish  from  the  Christian  Passover,  as  we  find  it  in  the 
account  of  the  Last  Supper  in  the  Gospel  after  Luke. 


346  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

The  Passover  or  paschal  supper  having  been  made 
ready,  Jesus  sat  down,  and  the  Apostles  with  Him,  round 
the  table  on  which  the  paschal  lamb  was  served.  '  And 
He  said  unto  them :  "  Heartily  have  I  desired  to  eat 
this  Passover  with  you  before  I  suffer.  For  I  say  unto 
you,  I  will  not  any  more  eat  it,  until  it  be  fulfilled  in 
the  Kingdom  of  God.'"  Though  not  clearly  stated,1 
it  is  implied  that  Jesus  did  not  refer  to  a  mere  spiritual 
partaking  of  the  Passover,  but  that  He  did  eat  the  lamb, 
on  this  final  occasion,  before  His  death,  which  would  be 
the  fulfilment  of  the  typical  Passover,  and  thus  the 
beginning  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  For  the  kingdom  of 
'  the  spirit  of  promise '  would  not  come  till  after  His 
death,  as  Paul  had  declared.  '  And  He  took  a  cup, 
gave  thanks  and  said  :  take  this  and  divide  it  among 
yourselves,  for  I  say  unto  you,  I  will  not  henceforth 
drink  of  the  fruit  of  the  vine,  until  the  Kingdom  of 
God  shall  come.' 

By  reporting  that  Jesus  spoke  these  words  about 
the  fruit  of  the  vine  at  the  end  of  the  supper,  not  before 
it,  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  first  Gospel,  the  third  Gospel 
implies  that  Jesus  did  not  Himself  drink  of  the  cup. 
The  expression  '  fruit  of  the  vine  '  seems  to  have  been 
changed  from  '  wine.'  For  the  cup  contained  wine,  to 
which  Paul  never  referred,  and  not  merely  '  liquor  of 
grapes,'  which  was  equally  forbidden  to  the  Nasirites, 
as  also,  presumably,  to  the  Essenes.  Eating  the  lamb 
and  drinking  the  wine  at  the  Passover  was  an  institu- 
tion so  contrary  to  Essenic  principles  and  rites,  that 
the  Essenes,  whom  Philo  calls  the  first  allegorists,  must 
have  figuratively  interpreted  this  ordinance  of  the 
Law,  giving  it  a  merely  spiritual  sense.  An  exceptional 
permission  to  eat  meat  and  drink  wine  at  the  paschal 
meal  cannot  be  assumed  to  have  been  granted  to  the 
Essenes.2     By  implying  that  Jesus  did  not  drink  of  the 

1  In  Matt.  xxvi.  21,  26  it  is  written:  'and  as  they  [the  disciples  only?] 
were  eating,  he  said.' 

2  According  to  Justin  Martyr  (Apol.  i.  65    comp.  13)  the  cup  of  the  Last 


THE    ROM  AX    CHURCH.  347 

cup,  the  third  Gospel  has  approximated  Jesus  to  Essenic 
rites.  Thus  a  mystic  meaning  has  been  given  to  the 
cup,  apparently  connecting  the  '  cup  of  blessing,'  the 
third  cup  of  the  Jewish  paschal  supper,  with  the  words 
attributed  to  Jesus  in  the  first  Gospel,  about  the  cup 
which  He  was  about  to  drink,  the  cup  of  His  last  suf- 
fering, which  He  prayed  might  pass  from  Him,  and 
which  the  Apostles  were  not  able  to  drink.  In  Mark 
these  words  are  amplified  by  a  reference  to  the  baptism 
(of  the  Holy  Ghost)  with  which  Jesus  was  baptized.1 

After  having  narrated  the  Jewish  Passover  which 
Jesus  ate  with  His  disciples,  the  third  Gospel  gives  a 
separate  account  of  a  new  sacrament  instituted  by 
Jesus,  which  is  almost  literally  reproduced  from  Paul's 
Epistle.  It  is  here  clearly  implied  that  the  paschal 
lamb  is  henceforth,  after  that  Jesus  had  eaten  of  it,  not 
to  be  eaten  any  more,  since  its  typical  meaning  was  the 
next  day  to  be  fulfilled  by  the  death  of  Jesus  on 
the  cross,  as  the  slain  Passover  or  paschal  lamb  of  the 
Christians,  as  Lamb  of  God.  The  bread  is  to  be  eaten 
'  in  remembrance '  of  Him,  of  His  body  given  for  them, 
and  as  (the  symbol  of)  His  body.  In  like  manner  the 
cup,  the  drinking  of  which  is  not  referred  to,  is  ex- 
plained as  (the  symbol  of)  '  the  new  covenant '  in  His 
blood,  shed  for  them.  According  to  the  Scriptures 
every  covenant  required  blood,  and  as  the  old  covenant 
was  confirmed  by  the  blood  of  the  paschal  lamb,  so  it  is 
implied  that  the  new  covenant  would  on  the  following 
day  be  confirmed  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  as  the  Lamb  of 
God,  in  a  non-literal  but  imputed  fulfilment  of  the  law. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  accounts  of  the  Last  Supper  in 
the  three  Gospels  are  based  on  the  supposition  that  Jesus 
was  not  crucified  on  the  day  of  the  slaying  of  the  paschal 
lamb,  on  the  14th  Nisan.     Yet  this  is  implied  by  the 

Supper,  like  the  cup  at  the  love  feasts  of  the  Christians,  may  have  contained 
*  wine  and  water,'  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century. 

1  Matt,  xx.  22;  xxvi.  39;  Mark  x.  38;  comp.  Martyr.  Polyc.  14. 


348  GENERAL   CONCLUSION. 

fourth  Gospel,  which  gives  no  account  of  the  Last  Sup- 
per, because  such  narrative  in  such  a  place  would  have 
led  to  inextricable  confusion.  Instead  of  it,  the  rite  of 
feet-washing  is  introduced. 

Paul  states  in  his  account  of  the  Last  Supper  that 
the  memorial  rite  was  instituted  by  Jesus,  not  in  the 
night  of  the  Passover,  but  '  in  the  night  in  which  He 
was  betrayed,'  which,  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel, 
was  the  night  from  the  13th  to  the  14th  Nisan.  The 
Apostle  clearly  implies,  by  other  statements,  that  Jesus 
rose,  visible  or  not,  on  'the  third  day  according  to  the 
Scriptures,'  that  His  death  as  the  slain  Passover  took 
place  as  antitype  of  the  paschal  lamb  on  the  14th  Nisan, 
and  His  resurrection  as  '  the  first  fruits '  and  <  the  first 
born  '  took  place,  as  antitype  of  the  paschal  firstfruits,  on 
the  16th  Nisan.  It  is  therefore  certain  that  Paul  refers 
to  the  13th  Nisan  as  to  the  night  of  the  betrayal,  and 
the  same  is  implied  in  the  fourth  Gospel. 

We  assume  here  that  Paul  regarded  Jesus  as  the 
incarnate  Angel  of  God,  or  the  spiritual  Eock  which 
followed  the  Israelites,  in  harmony  with  the  almost 
certain  Essenic  expectation  of  an  Angel-Messiah,  and 
that  the  twelve  Apostles  must  have  regarded  Him  as 
the  promised  anointed  man.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
Paul's  implied  doctrine  of  Jesus  as  the  paschal  lamb  was 
derived,  like  his  Messianic  doctrine,  from   the  Essenes. 

It  has  now  to  be  shown  that  the  Essenes  had  in 
the  first  century  a  Passover-rite  similar  to  that  which 
prevailed  in  all  Christian  churches  after  the  Council  of 
Nice,  when  the  paschal  dispute  was  finally  decided  in 
favour  of  the  Eoman-Alexandrian  Easter-rite. 

Eusebius  connects  the  Therapeutic  '  festival  of  our 
Saviour's  passion,'  described  by  Philo,  the  contempo- 
rary of  Jesus,  with  what  was  still  in  the  fourth  century 
1  in  vogue  among  '  the  Christians,  that  is,  with  '  the 
customs  that  are  observed  by  us  alone  at  the  present 
day,   particularly    the    vigils    of    the    great    festival.' 


THE    ROMAN   CHURCH.  349 

According  to  Philo,  the  Therapeuts,  whom  Eusebius 
reckons  among  the  aboriginal  Christians,  were  accus- 
tomed to  pass  special  days  of  their  Easter  festival  '  in 
fasting1  and  watching,  and  in  the  study  of  the  Divine 
Word.'  Now,  this  is  what  the  Christians  in  the  fourth 
century  continued  to  do,  as  Eusebius  testifies,  who 
declares  that  '  the  same  customs  '  which  were  observed 
by  the  Christians  '  alone,'  in  implied  contradistinction 
to  the  customs  of  the  Jews,  had  prevailed  in  the  first 
century  among  the  Therapeuts,  as  described  by  Philo. 

It  is  thus  proved  that  in  the  fourth  century,  and 
after  the  decisions  of  the  First  General  Council,  the 
Christian  Church  recognised  the  connection  of  its 
Easter-rite,  as  then  universally  accepted,  with  that  of 
the  Therapeutic  Essenes  of  the  first  century.  From 
this  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  Christian  '  vigils  of 
the  great  festival  of  our  Lord's  passion,'  to  which 
Eusebius  refers,  corresponded  with  a  similar  fasting 
and  watching  of  the  Therapeuts,  as  practised  by  them 
before  the  middle  of  the  first  century,  that  is,  probably 
not  later  than  a  few  years  after  the  crucifixion  of 
Jesus,  and  as  possibly  also  practised  by  Essenes  in  pre- 
Christian  times. 

Philo  wrote  a  treatise  '  on  the  festivals  '  of  the  law, 
as  figuratively  interpreted  and  mystically  observed  by 
those  who  were  '  in  the  habit  of  turning  plain  stories 
into  allegory,'  that  is,  by  the  Therapeuts,  the  sect 
which  '  first  pre-eminently  studied  '  the  '  invisible  sense 
that  lies  enveloped  in  the  expressions,  the  soul.'  Philo 
shows  that  the  feast  of  the  14th  Nisan,  when  '  the 
people '  of  the  Hebrews  offer  sacrifice,  which  the  The- 
rapeuts did  not,  was  by  these  Essenes  regarded  as 
'figuratively'  representing  'the  purification  of  the  soul.' 

1  If  Jesus  has  spoken  the  words  attributed  to  Him  in  the  Gospel  after 
Matthew  (ix.  14,  15),  He  has  sanctioned  the  fasting,  which  originally  was 
a  rite  of  the  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene,  as  distinguished  ex- 
pressly from  that  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus. 


350  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

On  that  day  they  fulfilled  '  their  hereditary  custom 
with  prayer  and  songs  of  praise.'  Instead  of  eating 
the  lamb  on  the  14th  Nisan,  they  connected  that  day 
with  a  fulfilment  to  which  the  type  of  the  paschal  lamb 
pointed,  and  to  which  fulfilment,  or  deeper  and  real 
meaning  of  this  rite,  they  looked  forward.  They  ex- 
pected a  fulfilling  antitype  of  the  paschal  lamb.  Did 
the  lamb  without  blemish  refer  to  it  which,  according 
to  the  Law  of  Moses,  was  to  be  offered  to  God  on  the 
third  day  after  the  eating  of  the  paschal  lamb  ? 

The  great  Alexandrian  mystic — probably  himself  a 
Therapeut — then  describes  the  meaning  of  the  15th 
Nisan,  as  a  day  of  '  cheerfulness  and  giving  of  thanks 
to  God,'  as  the  first  day  of  unleavened  bread,  the  day 
of  *  the  great  migration '  which  the  Israelites  made  from 
Egypt,  the  memorial-clay  of  '  the  gratitude  due  for 
their  deliverance.'  He  does  not  refer  to  the  '  holy  con- 
vocation '  which  the  law  orders  on  this  day.  Then 
Philo  explains  the  subsequent  festival,  named  '  the 
sheaf,'  which  Moses  ordered  to  be  solemnised  on  the 
16th  Nisan.  On  this  clay  of  the  offering  of  the  paschal 
omer,  on  the  third  day  after  the  slaying  of  the  paschal 
lamb,  the  Therapeuts  seem  to  have  held  the  '  holy  con- 
vocation '  which  the  law  ordains  on  the  day  before. 
Philo  calls  the  16th  the  festival  of  '  the  solemn  as- 
sembly,' which  festival  was  '  the  prelude  of  another 
festival  of  still  greater  importance,'  of  the  clay  of  Pente- 
cost, or  of  the  fiftieth  day,  which  was  reckoned  by  the 
Therapeuts,  and  according  to  the  law,  from  the  16th 
Nisan.  There  can  therefore  be  no  doubt  that  the  The- 
rapeuts regarded  the  16th  Nisan,  the  day  of  the  offering 
of  the  paschal  omer,  and  of  the  lamb  'without  ble- 
mish,' the  day  of  their  holy  convocation  or  '  solemn 
assembly,'  as  the  day  when  they  expected,  in  the  early 
hours  of  the  morning,  the  fulfilling  antitype  of  the 
lamb    offered    to    God    the    third    day  after   the    14th 


THE    ROMAN   CHURCH.  351 

Nisan,  when  '  the  people,'  but  not  the  Therapeuts,  con- 
tinued to  slay  the  paschal  lamb,  only  as  a  memorial  of 
the  past,  not  as  a  type  of  the  future. 

This  great  festival,  the  day  of  '  the  solemn  assembly,' 
preceded  by  solemn  night-watches,  not  only  by  Thera- 
peuts and  early  Christians,  but  also  by  all  Christians 
after  the  Nicene  Council,  is  what  Eusebius  calls  *  the 
great  festival  of  our  Lord's  passion,'  which  was  pre- 
ceded by  vigils.  Of  course  Eusebius  refers  to  the  day 
of  the  resurrection  which,  as  will  be  pointed  out  pre- 
sently, had  just  been  fixed  by  the  council,  for  all 
churches,  to  be  solemnised  on  the  Sunday  after  the 
14th  Nisan,  in  harmony  with  the  Koman-Alexandrian 
rite.  The  Church  historian  might  have  more  correctly 
called  it  '  the  great  festival  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,' 
but  already  Tertullian  had  called  both  days,  the  day 
of  the  crucifixion  and  the  day  of  the  resurrection,  '  the 
day  of  the  Passover.'1  Without  taking  cognizance  of 
the  days  of  the  month,  Eusebius  is  bent  upon  connecting 
the  solemnities  in  Christian  Churches  on  the  holy  even 
of  Saturday  before  Easter  with  the  corresponding  vigils 
of  the  Therapeuts  and  early  Christians. 

Philo  did  not  designate  the  Therapeuts  as  *  Christians,' 
and  we  shall  see  that  this  name  for  the  so-called  disciples 
of  Jesus  was  preceded  by  that  of  Essaioi,  by  which  name 
the  Alexandrian  contemporary  of  Jesus  designates  those 
whom  Josephus  calls  Essenes.  Also  the  Jewish  his- 
torian does  not  yet  know  '  Christians,'  or  any  party 
distinguished  from  Essenes  as  from  Pharisees  and  Sad- 
ducees.  The  connection  of  Christians  and  Essenes, 
darkly  implied  by  Philo  and  Josephus,  is  clearly  con- 
firmed by  Eusebius.  He  insists  on  the  identity  of  the 
Therapeutic  Easter-rites  and  of  those  of  the  Christian 
Church,  that  is  of  the  '  original  practices  handed  down 
from  the  Apostles.'  By  this  statement  he  would  force 
us  to  conclude  that  the  twelve  Apostles  sanctioned  the 

1  Tert.  de  Or  at.  14;  de  Cor.  Mil.  3. 


352  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

Easter-rite  as  all  Christians  observed  it  after  the  Council 
of  Nice,  and  that  the  Apostles  either  were  Essenes,  or 
had  accepted  the  '  hereditary  custom  '  of  the  Therapeuts 
respecting  the  Passover. 

It  is  impossible  to  assume  that  the  '  hereditary 
custom'  of  the  Therapeuts,  of  '  the  first'  who  had 
found,  according  to  Philo,  the  deeper  sense  or  gnosis 
of  the  Passover-rite  and  its  Messianic  fulfilment,  did 
not  date  from  pre-Christian  times.  They  looked  for- 
ward, long  before  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  to  whom 
Philo  does  not  refer,  to  the  fulfilment  of  what  was  dimly 
indicated  by  the  slaying  of  the  paschal  lamb  on  the 
14thNisan;  and  they  must  have  expected  that  fulfil- 
ment on  the  16th  Nisan,  on  the  third  day,  according  to 
their  figurative  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  On 
that  day,  we  are  informed  by  the  three  first  Gospels, 
the  twelve  Apostles  were  surprised  by  what  they  con- 
sidered '  idle  tales '  of  women,  by  their  reports  about 
the  visible  resurrection  of  Jesus  from  the  grave.  We 
are  told  of  these  women,  that  they  watched  at  the  grave 
of  Jesus,  instead  of  following  the  Jews  to  the  temple  for 
the  solemn  offering  of  the  first  fruits  and  of  the  lamb 
without  blemish.  They  must  be  regarded  as  represen- 
tatives of  Essenic  expectation.  If  on  the  morning  of  the 
third  day  after  His  death  and  after  the  slaying  of  the 
paschal  lamb  Jesus  was  visibly  raised  from  the  grave, 
this  miracle  could  only  be  regarded  as  the  fulfilment 
and  thus  the  confirmation  of  what  the  Essenes  expected 
about  the  antitype  of  the  lamb  offered  to  God  with  the 
firstlings  on  the  third  day  after  the  slaying  of  the 
paschal  lamb. 

Could  it  be  asserted  that  Jesus  died  contempora- 
neously with  the  slaying  of  the  paschal  lamb,  and  that 
He  rose  from  the  grave,  as  Paul  asserts,  on  the  third 
day,  that  is,  early  in  the  morning  of  the  lGth  Nisan, 
when  the  paschal  omer  and  the  lamb  without  blemish 
were  offered  in  the  temple  to  God  ? 


THE    ROM  AX    CHURCH.  353 

The  words  '  in  the  end  of  the  Sabbath,  as  it  began 
to  dawn  toward  the  first  day,'  or,  '  very  early  in  the 
morning  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,'  or  '  when  it  was 
just  beginning  to  dawn,'  or,  'on  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
while  it  was  yet  dark,'  clearly  point  to  the  very  day 
and  hour  when  the  paschal  omer  was  offered  in  the 
temple,  in  the  early  morn  of  the  16th  Nisan.  It  is  the 
exact  time  when,  after  solemn  '  vigils,'  the  Therapeuts, 
according  to  the  hereditary  custom  of  their  sect,  began 
the  great  festival,  the  day  of  '  solemn  assembly,'  and 
when  we  may  presume  them  to  have  expected  the  ful- 
filment of  what  was  prefigured  by  the  offering  of  the 
first  fruits  and  the  lamb  without  blemish,  on  the  third 
day  after  the  slaying  of  the  paschal  lamb,  on  the  16th 
Nisan.  This  day  of  the  reported  visible  resurrection 
of  Jesus  was,  only  according  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  the 
third  day  after  his  crucifixion,  which  latter  is  implied  to 
have  taken  place  on  the  14th  Nisan. 

We  shall  see  that  it  is  this  Gospel  only  which  sup- 
ports the  Easter-rite  of  the  Christian  West  in  the  second 
century,  whilst  the  Easter-rite  of  the  Eastern  churches 
is  based  on  the  narrative  about  the  crucifixion  in  the 
first  three  Gospels.  It  will  become  evident  that  the 
paschal  dispute  which  was  openly  declared  about  the 
middle  of  the  second  century  was  founded  not  only  on 
a  difference  of  ritual,  but  on  the  question  whether  the 
law  was  to  be  literally  or  figuratively  observed.  The 
real  question  was  whether  Jesus  had  died  on  the  14th 
Nisan,  contemporaneously  with  the  slaying  of  the  paschal 
lamb,  as  antitype  of  the  same,  or  on  the  15th  Nisan,  the 
day  of  the  liberation  from  the  Egyptian  house  of  servi- 
tude, thus  pointing  to  a  spiritual  exodus  from  spiritual 
bondage.  It  can  be  shown  that  the  paschal  dispute 
was  indirectly  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Lamb  of  God. 

It  was  in  the  year  155   that   Bishop   Polycarp   of 
Smyrna  declared,  before  Pope  Ani^etus,  that  he  had 

A  A 


354  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

solemnised  the  Passover  with  the  Apostle  John,  and  that, 
in  accordance  with  this  apostolic  tradition,  the  Eastern 
churches  preserved  the  Jewish  Passover,  especially 
the  Jewish  paschal  supper,  which  they  continued  to 
solemnise  in  the  night  of  the  14th  Nisan,  as  the  parting 
supper  of  the  Lord,  whilst  on  the  following  day  they 
kept  the  day  of  His  crucifixion.  The  Western  churches, 
led  by  Borne  and  Alexandria,  took  no  cognisance  of  the 
Jewish  Passover,  and  opposed  the  apostolic  rites  which 
Polycarp  represented  by  the  tradition  which  presbyters 
had  transmitted  who  preceded  Pope  Anicetus,  and  by 
which  he  was  bound. 

According  to  this  Eoman  rite,  the  14th  and  the 
15th  Nisan  might  fall  respectively  as  much  as  five  and 
seven  days  before  the  memorial  days  of  the  crucifixion 
and  of  the  resurrection,  but  these  two  events  of  Gospel- 
narrative  could  not  be  solemnised  respectively  on  two 
successive  clays.  The  Eoman  Church,  according  to  its 
presbyterial  tradition,  fixed  the  Sunday  after  the  14th 
Nisan  as  the  day  of  the  resurrection,  the  preceding- 
Friday  as  the  day  of  the  crucifixion,  and  thus  the  Satur- 
day in  Easter-week  vaguely  corresponded  to  the  Jewish 
great  Sabbath  of  the  paschal  week,  which  however  was 
fixed  by  a  day  of  the  month,  by  the  15th  Nisan,  the 
first  day  of  unleavened  bread,  the  week-day  of  Sabbatical 
rest.1 

It  is  in  harmony  with  this  Eoman  Easter-rite,  which 
was  opposed  by  Polycarp,  the  associate  of  John  and 
other  Apostles,  that  the  day  of  the  resurrection  is  de- 
scribed in  all  four  Gospels  as  the  day  after  the  seventh 
day  or  Sabbath,  and  yet  as  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
and  as  a  Sunday,  not  as  a  week- Sabbath  determined  by 
the  15th  Nisan.  That  day  might  have  fallen  on  the 
seventh  day  or  Sabbath,  and  the  16th  Nisan  might  have 
fallen  on  the  day  after  the  real  Sabbath,  on  the  first  day 

1  Levit.  xxiii.  11,  15. 


THE    ROMAN    CHURCH.  355 

of  the  week,  according  to  Jewish  reckoning,  this  being 
Sunday  or  the  first  day  of  the  week  according  to  the 
Christian  week.  But  if  so,  the  crucifixion  had  taken 
place  on  the  day  previous  to  the  resurrection,  according 
to  the  narratives  in  the  first  three  Gospels.  Only  ac- 
cording to  the  fourth  Gospel  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
or  resurrection-day,  is  the  third  clay  after  the  crucifixion. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  all  Gospel  accounts  about 
the  resurrection,  but  only  the  crucifixion  account  in  the 
fourth  Gospel,  confirm  the  Eoman  Easter-rite.  It  fol- 
lows, that  the  day  of  the  crucifixion,  the  loth  Nisan 
as  the  first  three  Gospels  assert,  was  the  seventh  day  or 
Sabbath,  and  cannot  have  been  the  day  before  the 
Sabbath  as  stated  in  all  four  Gospels.  Only  according 
to  the  fourth  Gospel  the  crucifixion  was  on  the  14th 
Nisan,  thus  on  Friday,  in  harmony  with  the  Paulinic 
Easter-rite  as  fixed  by  Eoman  presbyters  who  had  pre- 
ceded Pope  Anicetus. 

By  fixing,  for  all  years  to  come,  week  days  instead  of 
days  of  the  month  for  the  solemnities  in  memory  of 
the  crucifixion  and  the  resurrection,  the  Eoman  Church 
obliterated  the  typical  importance  of  the  14th  as  well  as 
of  the  16th  Nisan.  Thus  the  dangerous  question  was 
prevented  from  arising,  whether  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  had  taken  place  on  the  day  after  His  crucifixion, 
according  to  the  statements  of  the  first  three  Gospels, 
or  on  c  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  as 
Paul's  Epistles  and  the  fourth  Gospel  clearly  assert  or 
imply. 

If  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  the  so- 
called  Gospel  after  John  had  been  recognised  by  the 
Church,  whether  as  an  Apostolic  work  or  not,  some 
mention  must  have  been  made  of  it  during  the 
paschal  dispute.  Polycarp  must  have  declared  such 
scripture  to  be  not  apostolic  and  not  historical,  inasmuch 
as  it  asserts  what  the  Eastern  churches,  the  Quarto- 
decimans,  could  not  admit,  but  what  the  Eoman  and  the 

A  A  2 


356  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

Western  churches  held,  that  Christ  was  crucified  con- 
temporaneously with  the  slaying  of  the  Jewish  paschal 
lamb,  and  as  antitype  of  the  same,  as  Lamb  of  God. 
Again,  Anicetus  must  have  referred  to  this  apostolic 
authority  for  the  Western  rite,  and  for  the  doctrine  of 
the  Lamb  of  God.  If  any  reference  to  '  the  Gospel 
after  John'  had  then  been  made  by  either  party, 
Irenaeus  and  Eusebius  must  have  made  the  most  of  it  in 
their  accounts  of  this  dispute.  Irenaeus  informs  us  that 
4  Anicetus  yielded '  in  so  far  to  Polycarp,  out  of  respect, 
that  he  permitted  him  to  consecrate  the  elements  in 
his  presence,  and  that  '  they  separated  from  each  other 
in  peace,  all  the  Church  being  at  peace  ;  both  those  that 
observed  and  those  that  did  not  observe,  maintaining 
peace.' 

The    difference   continued.     It   was   not   merely  a 
question    of  calendar  or  about  '  the  manner  of  fasting,' 
whether  the  fast  should  be  kept  one  day,  two  days,  or 
more.     In  fact,  Polycarp  insisted,  on  the  authority  of 
the  twelve  Apostles,  that  the   Jewish    paschal  supper 
with  the  paschal  lamb  must  continue  to  be  solemnised 
by  the  Church   of  Christ,   and  that  this  ought  to  be 
done,  according  to  apostolic  custom,  on   the  day  when 
Jesus  ate  the   lamb  with  His  disciples.     In  fact,  Anice- 
tus insisted,  on  no   other  authority  than  that  of  some 
presbyters  who  had  preceded  him  in  Eome,  that  Jesus  had 
not  eaten  the  paschal  lamb  before  He  suffered,  though 
the  first  three  Gospels  assert  this,  but  that  He  was  cruci- 
fied on  the  day  when  the  Jewish  paschal  lamb  was  slain, 
and  that  Jesus  was,  as  Paul  had  declared,  the  antitype 
and    divinely    ordered    fulfilment    of  the    same.       The 
difference  was  essentially  one  of  dogma,  and  pointed  to 
the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Lamb  of  God,   of 
which   doctrine   the    first    three    Gospels    say  nothing, 
whilst  it  forms  the  very  basis  of  the  fourth  Gospel.    So 
important    were    the    issues    of  this    dispute    held  to 
be  about  forty  years    later  (196),    that    when    Bishop 


THE   ROMAN   CHURCH.  357 

Poly  crates  of  Ephesus  and  the  bishops  of  Asia  Minor 
renewed  the  dispute,  Pope  Victor — vainly  opposed  by 
the  peacemaker  Irenaeus — excommunicated  all  who 
opposed  the  Western  rite,  which  was  then  accepted 
by  a  few  of  the  Eastern  churches. 

Was  the  crucified  Jesus,  as  antitype  of  the  paschal 
lamb,  the  fulfilment  of  what  the  law  in  its  literal  sense 
could  be  held  to  have  predicted,  or  had  he  not  brought 
about  such  a  fulfilment  ?  Was  Jesus  crucified  on  the 
day  when  the  paschal  lamb  was  slain,  on  the  14th 
Nisan,  and  did  He  rise  from  the  grave  the  third  day  ac- 
cording to  a  figurative  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures, 
that  is,  as  antitype  of  the  paschal  omer  and  lamb  with- 
out blemish,  offered  on  the  16th  Nisan?  Or  was  this 
day  of  the  reported  visible  resurrection  from  the  grave 
the  second  day  after  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  on  the 
15th  Nisan,  as  the  first  three  Gospels  unanimously  re- 
port ?  It  is  certain  that  these  three  Gospels  record  what 
the  twelve  Apostles  knew  about  the  day  of  the  cruci- 
fixion, whilst  by  the  fourth  Gospel  the  doctrine  of  Paul 
is  conveyed,  and  falsely  attributed  to  the  Apostle  John, 
that  is,  the  doctrine  about  Jesus  having  died  on  the 
14th  Nisan  and  having  risen  the  third  day  *  according 
to  the  Scriptures.' 

No  further  evidence  is  needed  for  asserting  that 
the  Quartodeciman  paschal  rite  was  upheld  by  the 
Apostle  John's  Church  in  Asia,  which  his  associate 
Bishop  Polycarp  of  Smyrna  represented  and  defended 
against  the  Pope  at  Eome,  who  represented  all  the 
Western  churches  and  Alexandria.  But  an  important 
confirmation  of  this  assertion  is  contained  in  the  en- 
cyclical letter  of  the  Church  of  Smyrna  concerning  the 
martyrdom  of  its  bishop,  Polycarp.  Hilgenfeld  has 
incontestably  proved1   that  according  to  this  generally 

1  Hilgenfeld,  Der  Paschastreit  (I860),  comp.  Zeitschrift  f.  TV.  T.  1861, 
pp.  285-318. 


358  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

authentic  monument  of  Christian  antiquity,  Polycarp 
suffered  martyrdom  in  the  year  166,  on  Tuesday,  March 
26,  that  day  being  'the  great  Sabbath,'  that  is,  the 
15th  Nisan,  on  which  day  of  the  month  Jesus  had  been 
crucified,  according  to  the  first  three  Gospels.  This 
letter  indirectly  but  clearly  points  out  the  above-named 
and  other  parallels  with  the  passion  of  Jesus  as  related 
by  these  Gospels.  The  letter  confirms  that  the  Quarto- 
decimans,  on  the  authority  of  John  and  of  other 
Apostles  with  whom  Polycarp  associated,  continued, 
according  to  the  law,  to  regard  the  Passover  as  fixed 
by  the  day  of  the  month,  and  that  they  would  have 
opposed  the  solemnisation  of  Easter  on  fixed  days  of 
the  week,  as  sanctioned  by  the  Church  at  Eome  and 
the  Western  churches  generally. 

Hilgenfeld  and  his  party  are  in  a  position  trium- 
phantly to  declare  that  '  critical  historical  inquiry  in 
the  paschal  dispute  has  maintained  victoriously,  against 
all  raging  and  stormy  attacks,  a  firm  stronghold  of  the 
Church,  which  covers  the  domain  of  a  free  Gospel  in- 
quiry equally  well  as  the  right  understanding  of  the 
most  ancient  Church  history.' 

The  paschal  dispute,  in  fact,  was  based  on  that 
disagreement  between  the  twelve  Apostles  on  one 
side,  and  Paul  on  the  other,  which  it  was  the  object  of 
the  Acts  to  obliterate,  but  which  the  Epistles  of  Paul 
clearly  establish.1  To  conclude.  Jesus  is  not  connected 
with  the  type  of  the  paschal  lamb  in  the  first  three 
Gospels,  and  this  doctrine  is  there  quite  excluded, 
whilst  the  fourth  Gospel  connects  it  with  the  testimony 
of  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene,  and  with  the  fact,  there 
alone  implied,  that  Jesus  had  not  eaten  the  paschal  lamb 
the  day  before  His  death,  but  had  been  crucified  three 
days  before  His  resurrection  as  antitype  of  the  lamb, 
as  the  Passover  of  the  Christians,  according   to  Paul's 

'   See  Appendix. 


THE    ROMAN    CHURCH.  359 

definition.  Polycarp  and  Polycrates  stood  up  for  the 
paschal  doctrine  and  rite  of  the  twelve  Apostles,  the 
Popes  Anicetus  and  Victor  for  that  of  the  Apostle  Paul, 
which  was  finally  recognised  by  the  Council  of  Nice. 

Eusebius  wrote  his  Church  History  up  to  the  year 
of  the  council,  and  as  an  introduction  to  the  same.  He 
died  fifteen  years  after  it,  in  340.  The  paschal  dispute 
was  his  great  difficulty.  Even  the  writings  of  the 
peacemaker  Irenaeus,  though  intended  to  show  that 
it  was  merely  a  ritual  dispute,  dimly  showed  the  deeper 
grounds  of  dissension.  The  Arian  dispute  which  had 
arisen  in  the  time  of  Irenasus,  and  which  the  Council  of 
Nice  settled  contemporaneously  with  the  paschal  dis- 
pute, centred  in  the  doctrine  of  the  divinity  of  Christ 
and  in  the  doctrine  of  three  Divine  Persons  in  Unity. 
If  Christ  was  not  the  pre-existing  Angel-Messiah  and 
Lamb  of  God  from  the  beginning,  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  could  not  be  established.  But  if  these  new 
doctrines  could  be  applied  to  Jesus,  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  could  not  be  evaded,  and  must  be  acknowledged. 

Paul  had  clearly  taught  or  implied  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  the  incarnate  Angel  of  God,  '  the  spiritual  rock' 
which  followed  the  Israelites,  '  the  Man  from  heaven,' 
and  the  Creator  of  the  World,  '  by '  whom  all  things 
were  made,  who  had  come  in  the  '  likeness  '  of  sinful 
flesh,  and  who  was  crucified  as  antitype  of  the  paschal 
lamb,  as  Lamb  of  God.  Paul  was  not  directly  referred 
to  during  the  paschal  dispute,  and  yet  the  tradition  of 
some  presbyters  who  had  preceded  Pope  Anicetus  was 
the  Paulinic  tradition,  whether  or  not  also  that  of  the 
Essenes.  Nor  did  either  party  refer  to  the  fourth 
Gospel,  which  supports  the  Paulinic  doctrine  and  the 
Roman  Easter-rite. 

Eusebius  pleaded  the  cause  of  Arius  at  the  Council 
of  Nice,  although  four  years  earlier  this  Alexandrian 
presbyter  had  been  excommunicated  by  his  bishop,  on 
the  ground  that  according  to  his  doctrine  Christ  could 


360  GENERAL   CONCLUSION. 

not  be  the  true  God,  but  only  a  divine  being,  whether 
angelic  or  human.  It  is  perhaps  doubtful  whether 
Anus  regarded  Christ  as  an  anointed  angel,  or  as  an 
anointed  man.  But  it  is  certain  that  Eusebius  regarded 
Jesus  as  the  incarnate  Angel  of  God,  '  the  Word  of 
God,  God  of  God,  Light  of  light,  Life  of  life,  the  only 
begotten  Son,  born  before  all  creation,  begotten  of  God 
the  Father  before  all  ages,  by  whom  also  all  things 
were  made ;  who  on  account  of  our  salvation  became 
incarnate,  and  lived  among  men;  and  who  having 
suffered  and  risen  again  on  the  third  day,  ascended  to 
the  Father,  and  shall  come  again  in  glory  to  judge  the 
living  and  the  dead.' 

To  the  form  of  the  creed  as  drawn  up  by  Eusebius 
various  additions  were  made,  especially  the  expressions 
'  of  the  substance  of  the  Father,'  and  '  consubstantial  with 
the  Father,'  and  the  doctrine  of  Arius  was  expressly 
anathematised :  '  But  those  who  say  that  there  was  a 
time  when  he  was  not,  or  that  he  did  not  exist  before 
he  was  begotten,  or  that  he  was  made  of  nothing,  or 
assert  that  he  is  of  other  substance  or  essence  than  the 
Father,  or  that  the  Son  of  God  is  created,  or  mutable, 
or  susceptible  of  change,  the  catholic  and  apostolic 
Church  of  God  anathematises.' 

Having  first  objected  to  these  additions,  Eusebius 
afterwards  gave  his  assent  to  the  Nicene  Creed  as 
acknowledged  by  the  council,  but  he  explained  the 
additions  in  the  sense  of  his  previous  assertions,  by 
saying  that  '  the  condemnation  of  the  assertion  that 
before  He  was  begotten  He  had  no  existence,  does  not 
involve  any  incongruity,  because  all  (after  the  death  of 
Arius)  assent  to  the  fact  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God 
before  He  was  begotten,  according  to  the  flesh.' l 

Eusebius,  in  thus  yielding,  in  form  at  least,  '  having 
regard  to  peace,  as  dreading  lest  we  should  lose  a  right 
understanding  of  the  matter,'  did   more   than  Polycarp 

1  Socrates,  H.  E.  i.  8;  Tkeodoret,  H.  E.  i.  11,  12. 


THE   R0MAX   CHURCH.  361 

had  done  when  he  confronted  Anicetus  during  the 
paschal  dispute,  which  was  connected  with  what  became 
the  Arian  dispute.  Both  disputes  were  now  closed,  and 
his  Church  History  up  to  this  first  general  council  had 
to  be  written  with  an  eye  to  the  compromise  then 
in  fact  recognised  by  the  Council  of  Mce.  The  Church 
historian  undertook  to  prove  that  its  decrees  were  in 
harmony  with  the  one  tradition  which  the  twelve  Apostles 
as  well  as  Paul  had  transmitted.  Yet  Eusebius  cannot 
bring  forward  a  single  fact  or  argument  in  favour  of 
his  attempt  to  establish  the  non-apostolic  origin  of  the 
tradition  represented  at  the  beginning  of  the  paschal 
dispute  by  Polycarp,  the  associate  of  the  Apostles. 
He  does  not  say  who  were,  in  his  opinion,  the  '  simple 
and  inexperienced'  authors  of  the  apostolic  practice 
opposed  by  the  presbyters  of  Eome,  who  *  did  not 
observe,  neither  did  they  permit  those  after  them  to 
observe  it.'  Already  Irenagus  could  write  to  Pope 
Victor  that  his  predecessors  did  not  cast  off  any  one 
4  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  form.'  Like  Irenseus, 
Eusebius  is  bent  upon  denying  the  existence  of  dogmatic 
differences  in  his  time,  and  above  all  they  both  are 
careful  not  to  admit,  and  they  even  try  to  render  im- 
possible, the  assumption  that  dogmatic  differences  can 
have  existed  between  the  twelve  Apostles  and  Paul. 
Eusebius  unhesitatingly  declares  that  '  the  very  differ- 
ence in  our  fasting  establishes  the  unanimity  of  our 
faith.' 

Eusebius  had  serious  reasons  for  supporting  the  apos- 
tolic origin  of  the  fourth  Gospel  by  earlier  testimony  than 
that  of  Irenaeus.  He  had  to  show,  if  he  could,  to  what 
testimony,  in  favour  of  the  composition  of  that  Gospel 
by  the  Apostle  John  Anicetus  might  have  referred  ;  how 
the  Pope  could  have  convinced  Polycarp  of  his  error  in 
promulgating  '  a  remoter  tradition '  than  that  of  the 
Western  churches,  but  which  had  originated  in  '  sim- 
plicity  and   inexperience,'   and    could    not    have    been 


362  GENERAL   CONCLUSION. 

apostolic,  as  Polycarp  asserted.  For  this  purpose 
Eusebius  must  have  cited,  in  the  first  place,  Papias, 
bishop  of  Hierapolis,  whom  Irengeus  had  designated  as 
a  direct  disciple  of  the  Apostle  John.1  Eusebius  can 
only  show  that  Papias,  who  knew  the  first  Epistle 
of  John,  referred  but  to  two  Gospels,  of  Mark  and 
Matthew.  Eusebius  cannot  show  that  Papias  referred 
— any  more  than  Polycarp — to  Paul  personally,  or  to 
the  third  and  fourth  Gospels.  Yet  Polycarp  in  his 
epistle  (ch.  iv.)  cites  and  explains  a  passage  from  the 
first  Epistle  of  John  (iv.  3)  the  Apostle  and  his  as- 
sociate. 

In  the  second  place,  Eusebius  had  to  utilize  for  his 
purpose  the  writings  of  Hegesippus.  He  gives  extracts 
from  this  Jewish-Christian's  'Memorials  of  Apostolic 
Doctrine.'  He  was  a  born  Jew,  whose  lifetime  almost 
covers  the  second  century,  and  of  whom  he  writes  that 
in  his  Memorials  'he  left  a  most  complete  record  of 
his  own  views.' 2  Having  considered  the  unhistorical 
nature  of  Eusebius's  declaration,  that  the  practices  of 
the  Therapeuts,  described  by  Philo  and  sanctioned  by 
Eome,  were  those  which  '  the  first  heralds  of  the 
Gospel '  had  '  handed  down  from  the  Apostles,'  we  are 
bound  to  accept  with  great  caution  what  he  says 
about  the  private  if  not  peculiar  views  of  Hegesippus. 

Eeferring  to  '  the  ancient  heresies  prevalent  among 
the  Jews,'  Hegesippus  stated  that  '  there  were  also 
different  opinions  '  in  Israel  '  against  the  tribe  of  Judah 
and  the  Messiah.'  He  distinguishes  the  Messianic 
opinions  of  the  Essenes  from  those  of  the  Sadducees 
and  Pharisees.  According  to  Hegesippus,  Christianity 
had  evolved  from  Judaism,  but  not  by  a  figurative 
interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  For  not  a  word  is 
attributed  to  Hegesippus  which  could  be  explained  as 
sanctioning   the  Essenic  mode   of  interpretation,   their 

'  Iren.  Haer.  v.  33,  4  f. ;  but  compare  Eus.  H.  E.  iii.  39,  1  f. 
-  Hist.  Bed.  iv.  22;  comp.  8;  ii.  23  ;  iii.  11. 


THE    ROMAN    CHURCH.  363 

rites  or  doctrines.  What  he  says  about  James,  the 
brother  of  the  Lord,  proves  that  Hegesippus  must  have 
regarded  Jesus  as  the  anointed  man  announced  by  '  the 
law  and  the  prophets,'  not  as  the  anointed  angel. 

If  it  can  be  established  that  Paul  has  applied  to 
Jesus,  as  Stephen  had  done  before  him,  this  new 
Messianic  conception,  although  Jesus  had  opposed  it, 
then  it  will  follow  that  the  difference  between  the 
twelve  Apostles  and  Paul  was  based  on  nothing  less 
than  on  '  different  opinions '  about  Christ. 

After  the  loss  (destruction  ?)  of  the  work  of  Hege- 
sippus it  cannot  be  proved,  but  it  is  almost  certain, 
that  it  contained  direct  attacks  against  Paul.  For  one 
such  passage  has  been  -cited  by  Stephanos  Gobaros, 
of  the  sixth  century,  who  had  put  together  the  di- 
verging and  contradicting  sayings  of  the  Fathers  on  dog- 
matic questions.  Hegesippus  referred  to  Paul's  having 
written  that  God  had  revealed  to  him  through  His 
spirit  what  eye  had  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  and 
which  had  not  entered  the  heart  of  man.  Yet  Jesus 
had  said  to  the  twelve  Apostles:  'Blessed  are  your 
eyes  for  they  see,  and  your  ears  for  they  hear.'  Hege- 
sippus had  added  that  Paul,  by  such  'vain'  saying, 
had  placed  himself  in  '  lying  contradiction  '  to  Matthew.1 
It  is  not  likely  that  this  was  the  only  passage  which 
Eusebius  found  it  convenient  not  to  cite  in  his  Church 
History,  calculated  to  show  that  the  doctrinal  unity  of 
the  present  had  always  existed  in  the  past. 

We  saw  that  Eusebius  connects  the  Eoman  Easter- 
rite  directly  with  Essenic  practices,  as  recognised  by 
the  Apostles.  Moreover,  he  actually  declares  it  to  be 
'  highly  probable '  that  the  Scriptures  peculiar  to  the 
order  of  the  Therapeuts,  which  they  had  received  from 
the  founders  of  their  sects,  were  made  use  of  in  the 
composition  of  our  Gospels  and  of  the  Pauline  Epistles, 

1    l'hotius  Cod.  232. 


364  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

especially  that  to  the  Hebrews.1  So  determined  was 
the  Church  historian  to  use  every  conceivable  argument 
in  his  attempt  to  connect  the  indubitable  and  acknow- 
ledged Essenic  Easter-rite  of  the  Eoman  Church  with 
the  twelve  Apostles  as  well  as  with  Paul !  Can  it  be  true 
that  the  rite  in  question  was  indeed  transmitted  by  the 
twelve  Apostles,  although  Polycarp  declared  the  con- 
trary? If  Peter  founded  the  Eoman  Church,  the 
Jewish-Christian  origin  of  which  is  undisputed,  can  he 
and  can  John  be  regarded  as  having  been  originally 
Essenes,  or  as  having  become  the  promulgators  of 
Essenic  doctrines  ?  If  not,  are  we  at  liberty  to  suppose 
that  anti-Jewish  influence  in  Eome  decided  the  Easter- 
rite  in  that  Church  sooner  or  later  after  the  death  of 
Peter,  in  accordance  with  Paulinic  and  Essenic  (Gnostic  ?) 
tradition  ? 

According  to  Hegesippus  it  was  after  the  reign  of 
Trajan  (98-117),  after  the  death  of  the  Apostles  and  of 
the  direct  hearers  of  Jesus,  that  '  false  teachers,'  who  up 
to  this  time  had  been  or  may  have  been  '  skulking  in 
dark  retreats,'  as  Hegesippus  admits,  openly  came  for- 
ward with  '  combinations  of  impious  error  by  fraud  and 
delusions,'  preaching  against  '  the  gospel  of  truth.' 
Before  the  open  and  combined  attack  of  these  false 
Gnostics,  the  peace  in  the  virgin-Church  had  not  been 
disturbed.  It  seems  that  already  before  this  time,  ac- 
cording to  a  statement  of  Polycarp,  recorded  by  Irenaeus, 
the  Apostle  John  had  stood  up  against  Cerinthus,  and 
designated  him  as  '  the  enemy  of  truth.'  But  Hegesippus 
does  not  refer  to  Cerinthus  as  a  disturber  of  the  peace, 
perhaps  because  Cerinthus,  whether  he  wrote  the  anti- 
Paulinic  Apocalypse  or  not,  like  the  Jewish-Christian 
historian,  did  not  recognise  the  Apostle  Paul. 

Nor  does  Hegesippus  seem  to  have  connected  with 
the  open  gnostic  conspiracy  in  the  time  of  Trajan  either 
Simon  Magus  nor  his  '  successor  '  Menander,  with  whom 

1  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  17. 


THE    ROMAN   CHURCH.  365 

Eusebius  connects  Basilides  and  Saturninus,  as  well  as 
Cerdon,  who  preceded  Marcion.  But  already  in  the  year 
of  Trajan's  accession  (97-98)  Barnabas,  by  his  Epistle,  had 
crossed  the  border,  the  non-overstepping  of  which  had 
until  then  kept  the  peace  in  the  Church.  Not  only  because 
of  Paul's  admission  of  the  Gentiles,  Barnabas  separated 
from  him.  It  is  probable  that  Hegesippus  regarded  the 
anti-Jewish  teaching  of  Barnabas  as  the  beginning  of 
the  open  attacks  on  the  true  Church.  For  Barnabas 
represented  Essenic-Gnostic  doctrines,  and  opposed  by 
his  advanced  Paulinism  the  compromise  which  Paul  tried 
to  accomplish  with  Judaism.  It  was  not  necessary  for 
Hegesippus  to  consider  the  moderate  and  tolerating 
Judaism  expressed  in  the  so-called  first  Epistle  of 
Clement,  whether  composed  already  in  68  or  from  93 
to  96  or  in  120.  But  the  false  Gnostics  with  their 
ultra-Paulinism  followed  the  advanced  Paulinism  of  the 
Epistle  of  Barnabas,  and  they  left  in  its  isolation  the 
Epistle  of  Clement  which  first  sets  up  the  authority  of 
'Peter  and  Paul.'  The  compromise  which  the  Gnostics 
intended  to  bring  about  was  to  lead  to  far  greater  con- 
cessions from  the  Jewish-Christian  party.  They  did  not 
forget  that  shortly  before  his  death  Paul  had  been  de- 
signated as  the  chief  of  a  sect  everywhere  spoken 
against,  therefore  as  a  false  teacher. 

According  to  Epiphanius  it  was  shortly  before  the 
paschal  dispute  that  the  leading  Gnostics,  among  them 
Marcion,  the  great  anti-Judaist,  went  to  Eome  and 
asked  the  Eoman  presbyters,  whose  predecessors  had 
declared  Paul  to  belong  to  a  sect  everywhere  spoken 
again>t,  whether  the  old  bottles  would  do  for  the  new 
wine.  Did  the  Gnostics  point  to  a  revision  and  amplifi- 
cation of  the  Gospels?  Did  they  point  to  the  necessity  of 
a  new  Gospel  in  which  the  law  of  Moses  would  be  openly 
asserted  to  be  only  the  law  of  the  Jews,  as  is  done  in 
the  fourth  Gospel?  Did  these  Gnostics,  whose  con- 
nection   with    the   Essenes    and    with    some    of  Paul's 


366  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

doctrines  we  have  pointed  out — did  they  plead  before 
the  Eoman  elders  the  necessity  of  asserting  in  the  new 
law  of  a  new  Gospel  that  the  Jews  always  misunder- 
stood the  words  of  Jesus  by  not  interpreting  them 
figuratively,  according  to  Essenic-Gnostic  fashion  ?  Was 
the  new  Gospel  to  assert  that  John  the  Baptist  or 
Essene  had  pointed  to  Jesus  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  that 
His  crucifixion  had  taken  place  contemporaneously  with 
the  slaying  of  the  paschal  lamb,  and  His  resurrection 
on  the  third  day,  according  to  Paulinic  and  Essenic 
tradition?  If  so,  the  an ti- Jewish  fourth  Gospel  must 
have  become  recognised  by  the  churches  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  paschal  dispute,  sooner  or  later  after 
the  year  155,  and  the  Essenic  character  of  '  the  Gospel 
after  John'  as  well  as  of  the  Pauline  Epistles  would 
become  probable.  Then  the  otherwise  unaccountable 
statement  of  Eusebius  about  the  insertion  of  Essenic 
tradition  in  all  four  Gospels  as  well  as  in  Pauline  Epistles 
would  be  confirmed  by  the  fourth  Gospel,  which  is  so 
directly  connected  with  Paul's  Epistles. 

It  must  here  suffice  to  state  that  only  according 
to  the  fourth  Gospel  Peter's  brother,  Andrew,  and  an- 
other disciple,  whom  tradition  identifies  with  John, 
were  disciples  of  the  Baptist,  the  'Ashai  or  Essai,  the 
Essene,  when  Jesus  called  them.  Thus  it  is  darkly 
intimated  that  the  Essenic  tradition  about  Jesus  having 
been  crucified  as  antitype  of  the  paschal  lamb,  in 
accordance  with  the  Baptist's  testimony  and  with  the 
Gospel  '  after  John,'  had  received  the  sanction  of  this 
Apostle.  If  so,  Andrew's  brother,  the  Apostle  Peter, 
could  have  sanctioned  no  other  than  the  Essenic  tradi- 
tion, which  he  must  have  transmitted  to  the  presbyters 
of  the  Roman  Church,  as  Eusebius  clearly  indicates 
that  he  did.  But  the  accounts  of  the  Passover  in  the 
first  three  Gospels  prove  that  the  twelve  Apostles 
cannot  possibly  have  believed  Jesus  to  have  been 
crucified  on   the  day  when   the  Jewish   paschal  lamb 


THE    ROMAN   CHURCH.  367 

was  slain.  The  twelve  must  have  protested  against 
such  a  statement,  and  also  against  the  doctrine  of  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  was  based  upon  it,  if  in  their 
time  such  a  statement  had  been  made  in  any  Scripture 
purporting  to  represent  their  knowledge  about  the 
views  of  Jesus  on  the  Passover. 

By  its  Easter-rite,  which  the  fourth  Gospel  alone 
supports,  and  which  triumphed  finally  at  the  Council 
of  Nice,  the  Eoman  Church  has  certainly  not  fol- 
lowed the  tradition  of  the  Apostle  John,  but  it  has 
represented  Essenic  and  Paulinic  tradition.  Yet  at  the 
end  of  the  so-called  Gospel  after  John  it  is  asserted  that 
the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  has  written  this  Gospel. 
The  unusual  attestation  is  made  by  several  persons, 
who  declare :  '  We  know  that  his  witness  is  true.' 
These  persons  can  only  have  been  the  elders  of  a 
Church  where  the  Eoman  Easter -rite  prevailed  in  the 
second  century.  They  cannot  have  been  represen- 
tatives of  the  Churches  of  Smyrna  and  of  Ephesus, 
since  the  bishops  of  these  Churches  opposed  at  Rome 
the  Easter-rite  there  prevailing,  and  Polycarp  had  done 
this  as  associate  of  the  Apostle  John,  with  whom  he 
had  celebrated  the  Passover.  Nor  can  those  who  testify 
that  the  Apostle  John  has  composed  the  fourth  Gospel 
have  been  the  elders  of  any  of  the  Eastern  Churches, 
who  were  all  represented  by  Polycarp.  It  is  not 
to  be  doubted  that  this  Apostle  ministered  in  Asia 
Minor,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  was  buried  at 
Ephesus. 

Those  who  attested  the  apostolic  composition  of 
the  fourth  Gospel,  attributing  it  to  the  Apostle  John, 
although  Polycarp  had  claimed,  without  contradiction, 
the  authority  of  that  Apostle,  his  associate,  for  the  rite 
which  the  Eoman  Church  opposed,  may  with  sufficient 
reason  be  regarded  as  the  leading  elders  of  the  Church 
at  Eome.  That  Church  must  be  held  responsible  for 
the  setting  up  and  the  recognition  of  the  fourth  Gospel 


368  GENERAL   CONCLUSION. 

as  '  the  Gospel  after  John.'  It  is  the  Eoman  Church 
which  originated  the  discrepancies  in  the  first  three 
Gospels,  which  exclude  by  their  narratives  of  the  cruci- 
fixion the  resurrection  on  '  the  third  day  according 
to  the  Scriptures,'  whilst  in  these  Gospels  have  yet 
been  inserted  narratives  of  the  resurrection  as  having 
taken  place  on  the  third  day  after  the  crucifixion. 
The  second  day  is  the  only  possible  day  according  to 
the  first  three  Gospels  for  the  event  recorded  at  the 
end  of  them,  in  appendixes  of  more  than  doubtful 
historical  credibility. 

Among  the  Gnostics  who  were  in  Eome  before  a.d. 
132,  and  who  probably  continued  there  till  about  twenty 
years  later,  must  first  be  mentioned  Basilides.  He  had 
already  recognised  Paul,  whom  Cerinthus  had  opposed  ; 
after  him  a  gospel  was  called  '  the  gospel  according  to 
Basilides,'  mentioned  by  Origen  and  Jerome,  and  his 
commentary,  of  which  extracts  are  preserved,  shows 
that  this  gcspel  was  akin  to  that  '  according  to  Luke.' 
Basilides,  who  died  soon  after  a.d.  132,  according  to 
Jerome,  is  by  Hippolytus,  about  the  year  a.d.  225, 
shown  by  extracts  to  have  frequently  used  our  can- 
onical fourth  Gospel.1  Valentinus  came  to  Eome  about 
136  to  140,  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  Basilides,  and 
remained  there  beyond  155,  when  the  famous  debates 
took  place  between  Polycarp  and  Pope  Anicetus.  It  is 
non-proven  whether  he  knew  the  fourth  Gospel  of  our 
Canon,  but  this  is  more  than  probable  if  Basilides  used 
it,  and  since  disciples  of  Valentinus  before  170  have  cer- 
tainly cited  passages  we  find  only  there.  Valentinus  was 
4  a  hearer  of  Theudas '  who  '  was  the  pupil  of  Paul,' 
according  to  Clement  of  Alexandria.  The  latter  states 
that  this  Apostle  designates  as  '  the  fulness  of  the  bles- 
sings of  Christ '  which  he  would  bring  to  the  Eomans, 
'-  the  gnostic    communication  '   or  tradition    about  the 

1  Hilgenfeld  and  Lipsius,  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T.  46,  47,  consider  it  pos- 
sible that  these  extracts  refer  to  a  later  Gnosticism. 


THE    R0MAX    CHURCH.  309 

mysteries  till  then  hidden  (to  the  Komans),  and  which 
the  learned  father  explains  were  revealed  by  the  Son  of 
God,  'the  Teacher  who  trains  the  Gnostic  by  mysteries.'1 
Paul  was  fully  recognised  as  an  Apostle  by  Valentinus, 
and  since  140  byMarcion  as  the  only  Apostle.  Assert- 
ing that  '  Paul  alone  knew  the  truth,'  Marcion  altered 
Luke's  Gospel  into  the  gospel  which  he  alone  recognised. 
Had  the  Fourth  Gospel  of  our  Canon,  or  one  similar  to 
it,  been  then  recognised  by  the  Churches,  it  would  have 
been  easier  for  the  Paulinic  gnostic,  after  some  altera- 
tions, to  recognise  the  same,  although  not  as  composed 
by  the  Apostle  John. 

Since  the  Gospel  after  John,  or  a  document  containing 
similar  passages  to  those  we  find  in  that  gospel  only, 
was  known,  at  least  to  Gnostics,  perhaps  already  more 
than  23  years  before  the  arrival  of  Poly  carp  at  Eome, 
the  more  remarkable  it  is  that  Pope  Anicetus  did  not 
refer  to  that  gospel,  as  to  a  document  in  favour  of  the 
Western  Easter-rite,  with  which  the  Gnostics  must  have 
sympathised.  If  it  could  be  asserted  that  this  gospel 
was  composed  by  the  Apostle  John,  it  would  have  con- 
tradicted what  Polycarp,  his  associate,  had  said  about 
this  Apostle's  recognition  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
Passover-rite  in  the  Eastern  Churches,  and  the  Paschal 
dispute  would  have  been  over  at  once. 

It  can  be  now  asserted,  without  fear  of  impartial 
contradiction,  that  all  the  passages  which  refer  to  or 
are  connected  with  the  announced  resurrection  of  Jesus 
on  '  the  third  day,'  were  certainly  added  in  the  first 
three  Gospels,  and  this  not  before  the  recognition  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  or  possibly  with  a  view  to  its  reception  in 
the  Canon.  How  many  more  corrections,  omissions,  or 
additions  seem  then  to  have  been  effected  in  the  Gos- 
pels and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  we  have  not  here  to 
enquire.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  in  the  first  Gospel  of 
our  Canon  the  aboriginal  genealogy  of  Jesus,  showing 

1  Strom,  vii.  17;  v.  10;  vii.  2;  Rom.  xv.  29. 
B  B 


370  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

his  human  descent,  has  been  undermined ;  that  his  mis- 
sion as  Son  of  David  has  been  enlarged  ;  many  references 
to  the  Old  Testament  have  been  cited  from  the 
(Essenic  ?)  Septuagint  ;  the  testimony  of  the  (Essenic) 
Baptist  was  somewhat  harmonised  with  its  record  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  diametrically  opposed  to  '  the  Gospel  ac- 
cording to  the  Hebrews,'  which  latter  is  the  groundwork 
of  that  according  to  Matthew.  This  Gospel  was  recast, 
in  part  immediately  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
partly  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  by  a 
Eoman  Catholic  reviser. 

It  will  continue  to  be  a  debatable  question,  to  what 
extent  the  first  three  Gospels,  as  transmitted  to  us,  were 
composed  with  an  eye  to  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  to  what 
extent  the  latter  was  finally  revised  with  a  view  of  har- 
monising it,  as  far  as  possible,  with  the  earlier  propa- 
gated Gospels  and  with  Pauline  Epistles.  But  it  can  be 
rendered  probable  that,  by  the  pressure  of  the  increas- 
ingly mighty  party  of  Gnostics,  about  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,  the  Eoman  Church,  till  then  chiefly  the 
representative  of  Jewish-Christian  principles,  of  those 
of  the  twelve  Apostles,  ivas  offered  a  compromise  based 
on  the  full  recognition  of  Paul.  This  compromise, 
which  is  imperatively  demanded  by  an  unprejudiced 
comparison  of  the  Scriptures  forming  the  New  Testa- 
ment, had  become  a  necessity  for  the  Eoman  Church, 
which  could  not  have  brought  about  the  peace  in  the 
Churches,  on  the  basis  of  uniformity,  without  having 
first  brought  about  and  sanctioned  the  collection  of 
New  Testament  Scriptures,  in  the  very  form  in  which 
they  have  been  transmitted  to  us. 

The  connection  of  Paul  and  of  the  Gnostics  with  the 
Essenes  being  thou  known,  at  least  to  the  'stewards  of 
the  mysteries  of  God,'  it  became  necessary,  by  Paul's 
lardy  but  full  recognition  of  the  humanity  of  Jesus  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans — assuming  that  isolated  pas- 
sage not  to  be  a  later  interpolation— to  separate  him 


THE    ROM  AX    CHURCH.  87] 

from  the  Gnostics  who  denied  the  natural  birth  of  Jesus, 
the  first  of  whom  was  Simon  of  Samaria.  The  Church 
having  recognised  as  Apostolic  the  fourth  Paulinic, 
gnostic,  and  anti-judaic  gospel,  Marcion's  distinction 
between  the  God  of  the  Christians  and  the  God  of  the 
Jews  had  to  be  authoritatively  denied.  Jesus  is  there- 
fore here  reported  to  have  said,  that  his  God  was  the 
God  of  the  Jews,  what  neither  He  nor  Paul  certainly 
ever  could  have  denied.  To  yield  in  such  and  similar 
points  was  made  easy  for  Marcion  and  his  adherents  by 
the  recognition  of  the  new  Christian  Gospel  as  a  new 
law,  contrasted  to  the  law  of  Moses,  which  did  not  bring 
'  grace  and  truth.' 

The  Fourth  Gospel  promulgates  the  Paulinic  and 
Essenic  doctrine  of  Christ  as  the  Angel  of  God  and  the 
world's  creator.  By  the  omission  of  the  genealogies  and 
by  other  passages  it  draws  in  question  the  humanity  of 
Jesus,  which  the  Docetics  denied ;  it  confirms  the  new 
and  Essenic  doctrine  of  Christ  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  and 
thus  the  Roman  Easter-rite,  based  on  the  new  assertion 
that  Jesus  had  been  crucified  on  the  14th  Nisan,  con- 
temporaneously with  the  slaying  of  the  paschal  lamb, 
Finally,  it  qualifies,  if  it  does  not  oppose,  the  promise 
of  the  keys  to  Peter,  by  the  promise  of  another  advocate 
of  the  Divine  Spirit,  which  promise  some  of  the  Paulinic, 
Essenic,  and  Gnostic  parties  may  well  have  regarded  as 
fulfilled  by  Paul.  For  in  the  letters  addressed  to  the 
brethren  in  Asia  and  Phrygia  by  the  Christians  in  Gaul, 
which  Irenseus  may  have  brought  to  Rome  soon  after 
A.D.  170,  it  is  stated  of  one  of  their  martyrs,  Vettius 
Epagathus,  that  '  he  had  the  Paraclete  within  him, 
namely  the  Spirit  more  abundant  than  Zacharias,'  prob- 
ably the  Father  of  John  the  Baptist  or  Essene.  No 
reference  is  made  to  the  recorded  Pentecostal  outpour- 
ing of  the  Spirit.  Origen  argues  that  the  Paraclete 
brought  the  Gnosis,  which  the  Twelve  did  not  know.1 

1  Eus.  ILE.  V.  1  ;  Grig,  c.  Cels.  II.  2 ;  de  Frinc.  I.  3. 

13    B    2 


372  GENERAL   CONCLUSION. 

Although  against  all  Gnostic  doctrines  a  protest  was 
made  about  180  by  the  so-called  Muratorian  list  of 
Scriptures  which  the  Eoman  Church  recognised,  yet  a 
compromise,  based  on  the  introduction  of  the  anti- 
Jewish  Easter-rite  by  Pope  Sixtus  I.  (about  115-125), 
seems  to  have  been  offered  by  the  Gnostic  party. 
Although  the  succeeding  Popes  Hyginus  and  Pius  I. 
checked  the  fervour  of  the  Gnostics,  it  was  probably  by 
such  a  compromise  that  Anicetus  declared  himself  to  be 
bound.  Having  accepted  it  on  her  own  conditions,  the 
Eoman  Church  became  the  declared  enemy  of  the  abori- 
ginal non-Essenic  Jewish-Christianity,  represented  by  the 
twelve  Apostles,  and  which  Paul  had  only  in  part  opposed. 

Paul  was  martyred  during  the  Neronic  persecution, 
in  the  city  in  which,  till  after  the  middle  of  the  second 
century,  Jewish  Christians  and  Gentile  Christians  at- 
tended different  places  of  worship,  according  to  Justin 
Martyr ;  *  in  the  city  from  which  Paul  could  write  to 
the  Philippians  that  some  there  preached  Christ  '  even 
for  envy  and  strife,'  and  '  out  of  love  of  dispute  and  not 
in  purity ' ;  in  the  city  from  whence  '  brethren '  went  to 
meet  Paul  '  as  far  as  Appii  forum,'  and  where  yet  he 
was  connected  with  a  '  sect '  which  was  '  everywhere 
spoken  against.'  This  was  done  by  '  the  chief  of  the 
Jews,'  including  the  presbyters  of  the  Christian  Church, 
whom  Paul  called  '  brethren '  at  Eome  as  he  called 
Apostles   at  Antioch  '  Jews.' 

Paul  suffered  martyrdom  in  Eome  at  a  time  when 
the  Eoman  law  regarded  the  Jewish  (and  Jewish 
Christian)  religion  as  a  lawful  one,  but  where  already 
about  the  time  of  Paul's  conversion  the  State  had 
to  interfere  because  of  riots  occasioned  by  a  Chres- 
tus-party,  which,  according  to  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
may  be  termed  a  Christos-party.  The  name  Christians, 
by  which  '  the  disciples  '  were  first  called  at  Antioch, 
was  given  to  those  who   had  been   called    Jessaioi  or 

1  Dial.  47  y  Mangold,  Der  R-bmerbrief. 


THE    ROMAN    CHURCH.  373 

Essaioi,  that  is,  to  the  Essenes  and  Therapeuts,  who  were 
distinguished  from  the  Nazoraioi,  as  the  first  disciples 
of  Jesus  were  called,  according  to  Epiphanius.1  The 
separation  of  Jews  and  Jewish  Christians  at  Eome  from 
Paulinic  (Essenic)  or  Gentile  Christians  is  proved  directly 
by  the  Acts,  and  by  Justin  Martyr,  indirectly  by  Paul's 
Epistle.  It  becomes  thus  explainable  why  the  harmo- 
nising Acts  do  not  refer  to  the  martyrdom  of  Paul, 
which  seems  to  have  taken  place  under  circumstances 
which  had  to  be  mystified  in  order  to  strengthen  the 
bonds  of  peace  in  the  Churches. 

Jews  had  settled  in  Eome  more  than  a  century  before 
Paul's  martyrdom,  as  the  Hebrew  cemetery  proves. 
Among  them  seem  to  have  been  Essenes  or  Therapeuts, 
since  Aquila  of  Pontus,  possibly  the  Onkelos  of  Pontus 
after  whom  the  Targum  is  called,  had  left  Eome  about 
the  time  of  the  edict  banishing  Jews,  it  may  be  in  con- 
sequence of  the  Chrestus-dispute  among  them.  These 
Jewish  disputants,  the  Christians,  earlier  called  Essaioi, 
were  probably  Essenes,  and  Aquila  and  Priscilla  were 
almost  certainly  Therapeuts,  since  these  taught  Apollos 
4  the  more  perfect  doctrine,'  the  gnosis  of  Essenic  origin, 
whilst  only  Therapeuts  had  women  among  their  Initiated. 
Paul  had  promised  to  the  Eomans  to  bring  them  some 
'  spiritual  gift,'  that  is,  the  gnosis,  according  to  Clement 
of  Alexandria.  The  '  chiefs  of  the  Jews  '  in  Eome,  called 
this  gnosis  the  doctrine  of  '  a  sect  everywhere  spoken 
against.'  The  non-orthodox  Jews  or  Essenes,  first  called 
Christians  in  the  centre  of  Simon  Magus's  activity,  at 
Antioch,  where  Paul  called  Peter  and  Barnabas  dissem- 
bling '  Jews,'  had  different  opinions  about  Jesus  the 
Messiah,  considering  him  the  incarnate  Angel  of  God,  as 
the  extracts  from  Elkesai's  book  prove.  During  the 
reign  of  Nero  (5  4-68)  they  seem  to  have  all  expected, 
like  Paul,  Christ's  return  at  that  time.  By  their  figura- 
tive interpretation   of  Scripture,  they  had  been  taught 

1  liter,  xxix. 


374  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

that  Christ's  return  would  be  accompanied  by  great 
events,  ending  with  the  fall  of  *  Babylon '  or  Imperial 
Borne,  to  be  destroyed  '  by  fire.' 

Between  four  and  five  years  after  the  burning  of 
Borne  the  '  revelation  '  of  this  Essenic  expectation  was 
published,  which  had  been  known  to  the  Initiated  only. 
It  refers  to  the  martyrs  slain  by  Nero,  to  '  the  souls  of 
them  that  have  been  slain  for  the  Word  of  God,  and  for 
the  testimony  which  they  bore.'  To  that  testimony 
belonged  the  prophecy  of  the  burning  of  Borne,  the  ful- 
filment of  which  the  Essenes  in  the  year  64  must  have 
believed  to  have  come.  The  accusation  that  these 
Essenic  Socialists,  the  '  Christians,'  had  caused  this  great 
conflagration  is  non-proven.  Yet  Tacitus  writes  i 
'  Those  ("  Christians  ")  who  confessed  (to  have  set  fire 
to  the  city),  later  by  their  information  a  vast  multitude 
were  convicted,  not  so  much  for  the  crime  of  incendiar- 
ism as  for  (their)  hatred  of  the  human  race.'1  This 
hatred  had  found  its  expression  in  the  symbolical 
account  of  contemporaneous  events  as  recorded  in  the 
Apocalypse,  when  Tacitus  (born  57,  consul  97)  received 
favours  from  Vespasian.  Before  the  Apocalypse  was 
published,  between  June  68  and  January  69,  it  may 
have  been  known  that  there  were  men  within  the  city 
who  in  their  conventicles  whispered  into  each  other's 
ears  :  Borne  must  be  effaced,  '  delenda  est  Borna ' ! 

It  is  the  Roman  Church  which  has  inculcated  on 
the  Christian  conscience  many  recorded  facts  which  are 
non-proven  if  historical.  Thus  Christians  were  led  to 
believe  that  the  twelve  Apostles,  who  had  not  expected 
any  miracle  at  the  grave,  and  who  considered  the  stories 
of  the  women  as  '  idle  tales,'  became  convinced  of  the 
visible  resurrection  of  Jesus  on  'the  third  day  according 
to  the  Scriptures.'  Thus  the  Church  was  led  to  believe 
that  it  was  the  sudden  conversion  of  the  Apostles  from 
unbelief  which  overcame  their    dismay  and  dejection, 

1  Tacitus,  Ann,  xv.  44:  Suet.  Nero,  16. 


THE    ROMAN   CHURCH.  375 

caused  by  the  crucifixion  of  their  Master,  whom  they 
had  all  forsaken,  from  whom  they  had  fled,  because  of 
this  apparent  frustration  of  their  hopes.  To  bring 
about  this  conversion,  which  we  are  told  commenced 
at  the  grave  to  which  women  had  called  the  Apostles, 
it  was  necessary  that  Jesus  Christ  should  appear  to 
them  in  the  same  bodily  shape  in  which  He  had  been 
nailed  to  the  cross,  not  as  a  spirit,  but  in  the  flesh  and 
with  bones  which  could  be  and  were  handled.  Thus 
resuscitated  in  the  human  form,  though  surrounded 
with  an  indescribable  glory,  it  is  written  that  Jesus 
commanded  the  Apostles  to  baptize  in  the  name  of  the 
Trinity,  a  doctrine  not  known  to  the  Old  Testament, 
nor  confirmed  by  those  sayings  of  Jesus  which  are  re- 
corded in  the  first  three  Gospels.  To  these  unbelieving 
Apostles,  after  their  sudden  conversion,  which  prece- 
ded the  recorded  Pentecostal  miracle,  the  command 
and  authority  was  given  to  retain  or  remit  sins,  that  is, 
to  '  pardon  transgressions,'  like  the  Angel  of  the  Lord. 
They  saw  the  risen  Lord  ascend  to  the  skies,  whether 
on  the  third  or  on  the  fortieth  day,  and  heard  the  two 
men  in  white  apparel  promise  that  the  same  Jesus 
which  was  taken  up  from  them  into  heaven  '  shall 
come'  as  they  had  beheld  Him  go  into  heaven,  that 
is,  witli  flesh  and  blood.  Yet  Paul  had  said  that 
'  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit '  the  kingdom  of  God, 
which  Christ  had  entered  in  this  form,  as  we  are  told. 

The  Epistles  of  Paul  prove  that,  like  himself,  the 
twelve  Apostles  were  by  apparitions  of  the  Crucified 
convinced  of  their  Master's  life  after  death,  but  they  do 
not  even  imply  that  the  disciples  whom  Jesus  had 
chosen  preached  His  resurrection  on  '  the  third  day 
according  to  the  Scriptures,'  that  is,  as  antitype  of  the 
paschal  lamb  and  of  the  paschal  omer.  Yet  the  Twelve 
gave  Paul  and  Barnabas  the  hand  of  fellowship,  and 
recognised  them  as  Apostles  among  the  Gentiles. 
Though  there  were  essential  differences    between    the 


370  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

doctrines  of  the  Apostles  of  circumcision  and  those 
of  the  Apostles  of  uncircumcision,  Paul  writes  that  the 
same  God  was  effectual  in  both. 

6  The  holy  Catholic  Church '  had  to  represent  not 
only  the  tradition  of  Peter  but  also  the  tradition  of 
Paul.  It  is  possible  that  these  traditions  had  been 
respectively  represented  in  Eome  by  the  contempor- 
aneous successors  of  Peter  and  of  Paul,  by  Cletus  and 
Linus.  The  latter,  surviving  Cletus,  or  more  probably 
Clement,  was  the  first  Roman  bishop  of  the  united 
Petrinic  and  Paulinic  Churches,  whose  pontificate  lasted 
till  86.  A  great  compromise  had  to  be  made,  not  only 
with  regard  to  doctrine,  but  with  regard  to  history. 
Without  the  establishment  of  peace  in  the  ancient 
Church,  much  less  of  the  truth  would  have  been  trans- 
mitted by  written  records,  the  relative  value  and  the 
interpretation  of  which  could  not  have  been  and  was 
not  confided  to  the  people.  Mysteries  there  had  always 
been  in  every  established  Church,  and  mysteries  formed 
necessarily  the  rock  of  the  Catholic  Church.  We  regard 
nothing  as  more  historical,  though  mysterious,  than  what 
is  conveyed  by  the  words :  '  Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon 
this  rock  will  I  build  my  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail  against  it.' 

We  cannot  here  examine  the  genuineness  or  the 
meaning  of  these  words,  nor  shall  we  attempt  to  eluci- 
date the  question  whether  the  Apostle  Peter,  person- 
ally at  Rome  or  not,  can  have  transmitted  to  the  elders 
of  the  Roman  Church  '  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.'  Jesus  is  recorded  to  have  entrusted  such 
mysteries  to  the  safe  keeping  of  the  Apostles,  probably 
in  the  fullest  measure  to  those  three  to  whom  Paul 
refers  as  pillars  of  the  Church,  in  which  passage  James 
is  mentioned  before  Peter.  The  primacy  of  the  Roman 
Church,  which  was  sooner  or  later  an  historical  fact, 
may  therefore  have  been  originally  derived,  not  from 
the  political  pre-eminence  of  Rome  as  the  city  of  the 


THE    ROMAN    CHURCH.  377 

world,  but  it  may  really  have  been  an  institution 
founded  by  Jesus  Christ  for  the  purpose  of  transmitting 
from  generation  to  generation  a  holy  trust.  If  so,  the 
stewards  of  these  mysteries,  whom  Jesus  did  not  appoint 
as  bishops,  have  received  the  command  of  Jesus  Christ,  as 
recorded  in  the  Gospels,  at  some  future  time  to  preach 
openly,  from  the  housetops,  the  mysteries  confided  to 
them,  to  reveal  to  the  nations  '  the  key  of  knowledge,' 
once  '  taken  away '  by  the  spiritual  leaders  of  Israel.  If 
Jesus  has  promised  to  the  twelve  Apostles  that  He 
would  in  an  especial  sense  be  with  them  '  all  the  days, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,'  the  light  from  heaven 
will  reveal  to  their  successors  the  proper  time  for 
carrying  out  that  command.  Till  then  holy  tradition, 
'  the  memory  of  the  Church,'  partly  ascertained  by 
free  critical  inquiry,  must  be  recognised  as  the  source 
of  Holy  Scripture,  as  the  key  to  the  lock.  There  was 
a  Church  before  the  Bible. 

Before  Paul's  martyrdom,  he  and  the  twelve  Apostles 
had  already  initiated  and  acted  upon  a  compromise 
which  led  to  their  harmonious  co-operation.  Based 
upon  this  compromise,  which  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians  acknowledges,  a  more  far-reaching  compromise 
became  necessary,  about  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, in  consequence  of  the  paschal  dispute  and  the 
increasing  power  of  the  Gnostics.  To  the  Eoman 
Church  belongs  the  high  honour  to  have  brought  about 
a  final,  compromise,  accepting  it  with  all  its  conditions 
and  consequences,  including  the  enlargement  and  revi- 
sion of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  a  sad  but  incontro- 
vertible fact,  that  only  thus,  on  the  supposed  necessity  of 
doctrinal  uniformity,  the  peace  in  the  Churches  became 
possible.  By  acting  in  the  spirit  of  Peter  and  Paul,  the 
peace  in  the  Churches  will  in  future  be  established  and 
maintained.1 

1    We  purpose  to  show  this  in    a    work    entitled     '  The  Peace  in  the 
Churches.' 


378  GENERAL    CONCLUSION. 

When  the  seed  of  the  Word  of  God  shall  have 
sufficiently  prepared  the  hearts  of  mankind,  then  the 
Holy  Ghost,  through  the  instrumentality  of  different 
tongues  and  forms,  will  assemble  the  nations  of  the 
whole  world,  in  the  unity,  not  in  the  uniformity,  of  the 
faith,  and  Christ  shall  be  '  all  in  all.' 


370 


APPENDIX. 


Notes  on  Farrar*  8  '  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paid.9 

1.  Dogmatical  difficulty. — Canon  Farrar  regards  the  Acts  as  '  in  all  its 

main  outlines  a  genuine  and  trustworthy  history,'  and  '  in  complete  accord- 
ance '  with  Paul's  Epistles  'as  regards  the  main  facts.'  Paul's  statement 
about  '  the  false  brethren  secretly  introduced/ which  certainly  refers  to  main 
facts,  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Acts.  Paul  implies  that  these  false  brethren 
were  those  who  '  came  from  James.'  Farrar  explains  that  they  '  represented 
themselves  as  emissaries  of  James,'  probably  exaggerating  the  statement  they 
were  authorised  to  make,  if  indeed  they  had  '  any  express  commission,'  and 
did  not  '  assume '  the  authority  of  James.  But  this  is  evidently  one  of  those 
intended  omissions  in  the  Acts,  so  admirably  calculated  '  to  check  the  strife 
of  parties  by  showing  that  there  had  been  no  irreconcilable  opposition  be- 
tween the  views  and  ordinances  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.'  The  former 
was  called  a  hypocrite  by  the  latter,  for  having  accepted  the  correction  of 
James,  and  for  having,  with  Barnabas  and  <  the  other  Jews,'  separated  from 
Paul.  Again,  the  Canon  tells  us, '  without  hesitation,'  that  Gal.  ii.  is  Paul's 
account  of  the  Apostolic  Council  narrated  in  Acts  xv.,  that  his  Second 
journey  was  in  fact  the  Third.  No  doubt,  dogmatical  difficulties  would 
arise  from  the  admission  of  two,  for  a  time,  hostile  parties  in  the  primitive 
Church,  of  '  opposition  of  the  leaders,  of  personal  antipathy  of  St.  Paul  and 
the  Twelve '  (Farrar,  1.  c.  I.  300  f,  7,  8,  405  n,  3,  410  f,  440,  447  ;  eoinp. 
Jowett,  Romans,  etc.,  I.  326 ;  Bishop  Lightfoot  on  St.  Paul  and  the  Three ; 
Gal.  276-346). 

St.  Paul  himself  asserts  that  '  faith '  came  to  Israel  from  without,  not 
from  the  Twelve,  but  by  the  engrafting  of  the  wild  olive  branch  on  the 
native  olive  tree,  that  is,  of  the  Ethiopian  or  African  olive  (Oleaster)  on  the 
Palestinian  olive.  Pliny  and  others  state  that  this  was  done  to  strengthen 
the  native  olive  (//.  X.  xviii.  18  ;  Colum.  de  re  Rust.  v.  9;  Palladium,  etc., 
see  Farrar,  1.  c.  I.  21,  1). 

2.  Chronological  difficulty.— Referring  to  the  period  of  the  Judges  as  given 
by  St.  Paul,  Farrar  admits  (I.  370,  2)  that  the  450  years  result  from  the 
addition  of  the  respective  Scriptural  dates,  which  he  calls  'vague  and  often 
synchronous,'  and  that  this  period  is  confirmed  by  Josephus.  Yet  he  clings 
to  the  480  years  of  the  First  Book  of  Kings,  and  asserts  thai  by  accepting 
Paul's  period  of  450  years  '  we  only  create  chronological  difficulties.'  But 
the  14th  ofHezeMah  ought  to  be  the  year  B.C.  711  according  to  Assyrian 
inscriptions  ;  and  it  is  so,  if  the  period  of  450  years  is  accepted,  together  with 
the  traditional  year  B.C.  2300  for  the  Flood.  All  the  required  synchronisms, 
hitherto  regarded  as  difficulties,  or  rather  impossibilities,  can  be  thus  estab- 
lished {The  Chronology  of  the  Bible)  conip.  Trans.  Society  of  Biblical 
Archeology,  VI.   100-106)'. 


18,     „      9, 
25,     „     14,^ 
151,     „     21, 


380 


Gomgenda  and  Addenda. 

Page     v,  line    6,  Bereshith  Rabah  I.,  on  Dan.  ii.  22. 
„         9,     .,     12,  for  though,  read  through. 

for  Tathagatha  read  Tathagata.  Turnour,  in  his  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Mahawanso,  p.  56,  decides  that  Tathagata  may- 
mean  <  he  who  had  come  in  the  same  manner  as  the  other 
Buddha's.'  Childers  in  his  Pali  Diet,  identifies  Tathagata 
with  the  expression  '  the  son  of  man.'  The  Chinese  ju 
lai  (Tathagata)  is  explained  by  Medhurst  in  his  Chinese 
Diet,  as  « the  coming  '  (Buddha).  For  these  reasons  Pro- 
fessor Beal  (in  a  letter)  translates  Tathagata  by  '  the 
coming  One  '  (comp.  Ezek.  xxi.  27  ;  Is.  ix.  6  ;  xvi.  5  ;  Jer. 
L  xxiii.  5). 
2:?,    „      21,  for  sign  read    constellation. 

2S>     »       6,  „  variableness       „      parallax. 
36,     „     13,  „    unbearing,        „     unbaring. 
48,  note,  read  Koppen,  Die  Religion  des  Buddha  I. 
58,  line  19,  for  vhu  read  bhu. 
„       „     20,  ,,    vhuvar    „   bhvtvar. 
78,     ,,     27,  read  in  the  27th  year  about  B.C.  259. 
82,    „     11,  read,  and  enjoins  reverence  for  one's  own  faith,   and  no 

reviling  nor  injury. 
104,  note,  for  Jehovah  read  Elohim. 
106,  line  23,  read  seven  walls  of  Ecbatana. 

109,     „     22,     ,,     which  fact  Clement  of  Alexandria  designates  as  non- 
proven. 
109,  note,    read  puerperal  state,  though  she  was  not ;  for  some  say,  that 
after  she  brought  forth  she  was  found,  when  examined, 
to  be  a  virgin. 
167,  line    5,  for  redemption  read  liberation. 
182,     „     19,   „    Rome  read  Caesarea. 
187,  note   1,  read  Rom.  viii.  3,  4. 
193,  line  23,  for  mankind  read  the  new  creation. 
„       „     26,    „   all  men  are  read  i  all  things,'  and,  in   a  special  sense, 
'  we '  are. 

225,  „     28,  for  11th  Nisan  read  13th  Nisan. 

226,  „       3,  „ 

252,  „  19,  ,,  Hebrews  read  Hebrew. 

253,  „  19,  „  tribal  read  scribal. 

272,  „  10,  read  by  the  Sadducees,  not  by  the  Pharisees. 

276,  „  12,     „    a  later  date  has  been  supported. 

287,  „  13,     „    Ctutgar. 

229,  „  20,     „     1776-75. 

300,  „  22,     „     Enoch,  and  already  then. 


TABLE   OF  PRINCIPAL  CONTENTS. 


Abidha,  30 

Agni,  56,  105,  130 

Alexander,  78,  82,  83 

Ananda,  47 

Ananias,  175-177 

Angel-Messiah,  12,  23,  24,  25,  104- 
137,  184-196,  221,  237,  257,  259, 
271,  279,285—299,  303,  304-325, 
331-341,  341-344,  348,  359,  363, 
370 

Aquila,  242,  243,  373 

Aramaean,  85,  86 

Arani,  56, 105 

Arms,  359,  360 

Arsakes,  78 

Asita,  36 

Asoka,  16,  18,  79,  82 

Assidseans,  90 

Atonement,  5,  6,  153-155,  220-238, 
340 

Bairat  (Bhabra),  16 

Banus,  149,  232 

Barnabas,  185,  186,  375 

Barnabas,  Epistle,  211, 222,  325-333, 

365 
Baptism,  42,  43,  45,  115,  117,  125, 

225 
Basilides,  341,  367 
Beulah,  42 
Bhava,  32 
Bhagavat,  20,  35 
Bodhi,  Buddh,  Bodb,  9,  10,  20 
Bodhisatwa,  25,  35 
Brahm,  9,  10,  31 
Brahma,  32,  37 
Brahmans,  3,  46 
Buddha  (see  Gautama),  10,  11,  18  f. 

Capernaum,  113 


Oasdim,  4,  5,  72,  105 

Oerinthus,  316-324,  354,  367 

Chaberim,  86 

Ohaldaeans,  4,  5,  7,  72,  86 

Cherub  or  Kirub,  105 

Cheta,  72 

Chrestus-party,  181,  279,  372,  373 

Christians,  name  of,  270,  281,  351, 

372-374 
Christmas-day,  18  f. 
Clement,  Pope,  374 
Clement,  Epistle,  365 
Cletus,  Pope,  374 
Confucius,  34 
Cross,  symbol  of,  57-59 

Daniel,  84,  85,  288 

Daniel,  Book  of,  4,  85,  93,  283-295 

Dhammapada,  16,  121 

Dionysos,  65 

Dorians,  67 

Easter-rite,  348-368 

El  Shaddai,  8 

Elijah,  121,  208 

Elkesai,  103,  111-119 

Elohist,  86,  89 

Emmaus,  disciples  of,  206 

Enoch,  Book  of,  298-300 

Ephthalites,  13 

Eros  and  Serosh,  61 

Essenes  or  Essai,  77-103,  119-137, 

138-167,  168-240,  259,  261-265, 

348-352,  373-374 
Essenasnes,  90 
Essenic  writings,  17,  240,  258,  282- 

333,  363 
Ezra,  Apocalypse  of,  325 

Gautama,  9,  10,  12,  18-52 


382 


TABLE    OF    PRINCIPAL    CONTENTS. 


Gnosis,  93,  99,  177,  259,  260,  281, 

282-344 
Gnostics,  212,  364,  369 

Hea,  105 

Hegesippus,  270-272,  362-305 
Hellenists,  168-183 
Herodians,  261-265 
Himalaya.  14 
Hindus,  10,  32 
Hippolytus,  367 
Homer,  70-75 
Huns,  13,  14 
Hyksos,  72 

Indians,  2,  9,  77 

Indra,  2,  34,  37,  44,  65 

lonians,  69-75 

Iranians,  2,  10 

Irenseus,  357,  359 

Isia,  22 

Isvaradeva,  19,  20,  28,  30,  64 

Iyotisham,  21 

Jainism,  12,  13,  78 
James,  brother  of  Jesus,  261-281 
James,  Epistle  of,  276-281 
Jehovist,  86,  89 

Jesus  Christ,     137-167;     date     of 
crucifixion,  173  ;  resurrection,  173, 
196-213,    344-355;     disciples  of, 
173  f.;  person  of,  184-187 ;  as  the 
Spirit  of  God,  187-196  ;   appari- 
tions of,  213-216,  379 ;  as  Wisdom 
of  God,  228 ;  his  last  Supper,  229- 
236,  345-348 ;  as  Personal  Word 
and  High  Priest,  244-260,  337  f. 
::77 
John  the  Baptist,  118, 137, 144-151, 
167,  209,  218,  237,  242,  343,  364, 
366;  disciples  of,  113,  136,  366 
John,  the .Apostle, 354, 362,  365-368 
John,  Epistles  of,  333-341 
John,  Revelation  of,  304-325 
Joseph   and   Mary,    their    children, 

265-268 
Joshua,  7,  8 

Kalki,49 
Karma,  25,  26 
Kung-Teng,  25,  41 

Laban,  (» 

Lalita  Vistara,  15 
Lamaism,  11 

Lamb  of  God,  204,  210,  340,  365, 
370 


Linus,  Pope,  374 

Maccabees,  263,  264 
Maccabean  Psalms,  295-297 
Maga  or  Maya,  4,  9,  23, 25,  31, 33-37 
Magi,  2,  4,  9,  77,  85,  90,  93 
Magic,  5,  6,  8,  9 
Maha  Brahma,  19,  48 
Mahomedans,  14 
Maitreya,  49 
Mandasans,  113 
Maim,  4,  9,  46 
Mara,  38-40 
Marcion,  364,  367,  370 
Mary,  the  Virgin,  24,  109 
Massora,  88  f.,  93 
Matarisvan,  56,  104 
Medes,  2,  4,  85 
Merkabah,  11,  12,  87 
Messiah,    25,     40-45;     see    Angel- 
Messiah 
Messianic  prophecies,  108-110 
Metatron,  91,  92,  101,  303 
Millennium,  286-289,  320,  321,  324 
Mithras,  105,  122  . 
Moses,  ascension  of,  300 
Muratorian  list,  371 

Naga,  39,  44 

Naxatras,  21 

Nice,  Council  of,  348  f. 

Nimrod,  106 

Nirvana,  19,27-33,  43,  45,  47,  64 

Noah,  22 

Oracles,  69 
Ormuzd,  2,  5,  104  f. 
Osiris,  64 

Papias,  272,  324,  362 

Paraclete,  370 

Parsists,  119-135 

Parthians,  14,  80 

Paschal  bread  and  cup,  228 

Paschal  dispute,  344-370 

Paschal  lamb,  151, 199,213,  221,224, 

228,  233,  332-336,  344-355,  365 
Paschal   omer,  151,  173,  174,  199- 

213,  233,  344-355 
Passover  or  Paschal  lamb,  204,  224, 

345,346,354 
Paul,  168-240,  344-374,  339,  359, 

370-377 
Pentecost,  216-220,  371,  375 
Peter,  182,  186,  212,  268,  280,  374- 

377 
Pharis  and  Pharisees,  86,  92 


TABLE    OF    PRINCIPAL    CONTENTS. 


383 


Philip,  182 

Philo,  94,  102,  118,  119,  222,  223, 
233,  244, 248, 342,  343,  349  f.,  362 
Phoenix,  64 

Pleiades,  6,  21,  64,  66,  105 
Polycarp,  354-358,  366 
Polycrates,  357 
Prashna  Paramita,  11,  25,  31 
Pythagoras,  53-76,  83 

Rabbi,  87,  301,  303 

Rahula,  16 

Rechabites,ll,  121,136,261, 271,273 

Revision  of  the  Gospels,  345,  365, 

368,  369,  375 
Rome,  burning  of,  373-374 

Sabaeans,  113 

Sacrifice,  5,  6,  45,  153-155,  220-238 

Sakas.  13,  14,  15 

Sakya,  41 

Sakya-muni,  13,  15,  46 

Sanchi  Tope,  16,  18 

Scythians,  14,  15 

Septuagint,  93-101 

Shebtee,  6,  7 

Shem,  5,  68,  71,  72,  105 

Sibut,  6 

Sibyl,  Books  of,  297 

Simon   of    Samaria,    180-182,   343, 

370,  373 
Siva,  13,  39 
SixtusL,  Pope,  372 
Soma  sacrifice,  107 
Spirit  of  God,  12,  97,  99,  187-196, 

279,  337,  339 
Sramans,  10 
Stephen,  169-183,  238 
Stephanos  Gobaros,  363 
Stranger  in  Israel,  86,  90,  91,  121, 

138-151,  273,  281 
Synagogue,  88 


Targumim,  89,  93,  101 
Tathagata,  18,  377 
Terah,  Teraphim,  Ter,  6,  7,  8 
Therapeuts,  113,  133,  135,  169,  173, 

182,  183,  226,  241,  243,  348-352 
Theudas,  367 
Thibet,  14 
Thot,  56 

Transfiguration,  45 
Transmigration  of  souls,  63 
Tree  of  life,  225 
Trinity,  59,  338,  359,  374 
Trojan  war,  73 
Tuisol,  42 
Twelve,   the,    179,   186,   197—207, 

213,  214,  219,  232,  329,  346,  348, 

366,  370-377 

Ur,  6,  7 
Upadana,  47 

Valentinus,  367 
Veda,l,  4,  8,  11 

Vicarious  suffering,  49,  50,  153-155, 

236 
Vittal,  Vithoba,  13 
Vowel  points,  89 

Wisdom,  hidden,  88-97,  151-153 
Wisdom,  Book  of,  98-100,  297 
Word  of  God,  47,  93,  99,  101,  189- 
193,  244,  251,  260,  277-279,  299, 
301,  304,  313,  315,  334-340,  377 

Yezirah,  Book  of,  302 

Zendavesta,   2,   3,  11,  19,  29,  104, 

123 
Zeus,  55-62 
Zohar,  300 

Zoroaster,  10,  91,  106,  135 
Zoroastrians,  5,  12 


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INDEX 


Abbey  &  Overton  s  English  Church  History  15 

's  Photography  11 

Acton '  s  Modern  Cookery 21 

Alpine  Club  Map  of  Switzerland  18 

Alpine  Guide  (The) 18 

Amos' s  jurisprudence  5 

Primer  of  the  Constitution 5 

Fifty  Years   of  the   English  Con- 
stitution    5 

Anderson  s  Strength  of  Materials 11 

A rmstrong's  Organic  Chemistry    11 

Arnold's  (Dr. )  Lectures  on  Modern  History  2 

Miscellaneous  Works    7 

Sermons  15 

(T. )  English  Literature 6 

Arnott's  Elements  of  Physics 10 

Atelier  (The)  du  Lys    19 

Atherstone  Priory 19 

\utumn  Holidays  of  a  Country  Parson  ...  7 

Ayre's  Treasury  of  Bible  Knowledge  21 

Bacon's  Essays,  by  Whately  6 

Life  and  Letters,  by  Spedding   ...  5 

Works 5 

Bagehot's  Economic  Studies  21 

Literary  Studies 6 

Bailey's  Festus,  a  Poem 19 

Bain's  Mental  and  Moral  Science 6 

on  the  Senses  and  Intellect   6 

Emotions  and  Will 6 

Baker's  Two  Works  on  Ceylon 17 

Ball's  Alpine  Guides   18 

Barry  on  Railway  Appliances    11 

Beaconsfield' s  (Lord)  Novels  and  Tales  18  &  19 

Becker  s  Charicles  and  Gallus 8 

Beesly's  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla 3 

Black ' s  Treatise  on  Brewing  21 

Blackley's  German- English  Dictionary 8 

Blaine's  Rural  Sports 20 

Bloxam's  Metals   11 

Bolland  and  Lang's  Aristotle's  Politics 6 

Boultbee  on  39  Articles 15 

's  History  of  the  English  Church...  15 

Bourne's  Works  on  the  Steam  Engine 14 

Bowdler's  Family  Shakespeare  19 

B  ram  ley-Moo  re  s  Six  Sisters  of  the  Valleys  .  19 
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Brassey's  Sunshine  and  Storm  in  the  East .  17 

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Browning's  Modern  England    3 

Buckle's  History  of  Civilisation 2 

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Buck  ton's  Food  and  Home  Cookery 21 

Health  in  the  House  13 

Town  and  Window  Gardening...  12 

Bull's  Hints  to  Mothers 2r 

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Capes' s  Age  of  the  Antonines 3 

Early  Roman  Empire    3 

Cayley's  Iliad  of  Homer  19 

Cctshwayd's     Dutchman,     translated     by 

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Colenso  on  Moabite  Stone  &c 17 

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Comte's  Positive  Polity     5 

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