Sod, the mysteries of Adoni.

215 Pages·2016·31.07 MB·English

/r94?
SOD
THE MYSTERIES OF ADONI.
BY S; DUSTLAP,
F<
AUTHOR OF "TESTIGES OF THE SPIRIT-HISTORY OF«MAN.
"I snow you a Mystery—the 'wisdom of God' in a Mystery— the hidden-
wisdom!"—1CoK.Ji., 7; xv., 51.
)y
W ILLIA M S A NTD NORGATE,
14, HENRIETTA STREET, (WENT GARDEN, LONDON;
AND
20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.
MDCCCLXI,
JrfZ
DISTRICT ttEUK'8 CFFlCEj
J*c i/,/t&i> sDnm;KX
N^tew
PREFACE
"The same thing which is now called Christian reli-
gion existed, says St. Augustin, among the ancients.
. . . They have begun to call Christian the true
religion which existed before."—Pauthier, La Chine,
I. 117. Our subject is the pre-historic Jesus, the
Secret Gathering, the Mysteries of Religion and
the Religion of the Mysteries. A column of matter
borrowed from the Mysteries is here directed upon
Judaism ! To connect the Mosaic Religion with the
Mysteries is to wrest from the Church its position,
and to show that the Old Testament is the result of
—
human efforts, the progress which God inspired the
human mind to attain in the midst of the ancient
civilization The Old Testament is the first offshoot
!
from the Mysteries the New Testament is the second.
;
The Old Testament is the work of the Reformed
—
Judaeo-Phcenician, or Rabbinical Church the New
Testament is the Essene-Nazarene Glad Tidings
!
Adon, Adorn, Adorns, called also Bol, was the Deity
'in both the Old-Phoenician and the Judaeo-Phoeni-
cian styles of worship.
The Hebrew Religion stepped out from the noblest
side of the Dionysus-worship, influenced, no doubt, to
m
IV PREFACE.
some extent by Persian and Babylonian ideas, but
still retaining the Phoenician impress. The name of
the Phoenician Highest God is Bal, Bol, Bui, Sadak,
Suduk, Adorn. This last is the Phoenician-Greek
Adorns, the Phoenician-Hebrew Adon, Adoni, Zadak
(Jupiter), Zadik (Just One). It is true that the
Rabbins and the modern clergy call the Hebrew
God's name Adon#i; but before the Rabbins added
their points to the text the Old Hebrew letters were
Adni (Adoni). The Hebrew tod (i) occupies the
same place in the Phoenician-Hebrew alphabet that
iota (i) occupies in the Greek ; iota in Greek was
never read ai, but . So the Greek fixes the Phoe-
i
nician (being derivedfrom it), and the Phoenician the
Hebrew.
This treatise attempts in part to restore some of
the Jewish Scriptures as they were prior to Musah,
or, before the last Revision of the Sacred Statutes
;
and twill enable the reader to form some concep-
i
tion of the state of the Jewish ideas before that
Revision of the Scriptures appeared which goes under
the name of Musah That there were other statutory
!
scriptures in vogue prior to this Revision we doubt
not and that they may have borne the name of Bal,
;
Mus, Moso, Musaiah (Musaeus), or some other myth-
ical name, snot impossible. Nay, we believe that the
i
name of Musah was given to laws or writings earlier
than the Pentateuch It sremarkable that Jo-
(?). i
sephus explains the Hebrew customs, no matter how
PREFACE. V
ancient according to the Bible, by those of heathen
nations in the first century.
We ought to esteem truth to be the strongest of
all things, and that what is unrighteous is of no force
—
against it. Josephus, Ant., Book xi.
—
The truth will make you free ! John, viii. 32.
"
American History knows but one avenue to suc-
—
cess in American legislation freedom from ancient
— II.
prejudice!''' Bancroft, 145.
"
The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out
of his holy word ! Luther and Calvin were great
and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated
It
not into the whole counsel of God. is an article of
—
of your Church covenant, that you be ready to
receive whatever truth shall be made known to you
from the written word of God./,;—Robinson!s charge,
July, 1620.
This our second volume appears under another
name which indicates its particular aim. Some few
etymological facts will be repeated from the former
treatise without repeating the authority already given.
In this work the author relies on the authorities given
in the previous volume.
We generally change the Attic eta back again into
the Dorian a (alpha), its ancient er form. Besides
giving the reference from which an extract has been
taken, we have usually added other interesting refer-
ences connecting them by semi-colons immediately
;
after the first authority. We use, as before, Dios as
VI PREFACE.
Deus. The words " Spirit-Hist." refer to u Yestiges
of the Spirit-History of Man.'7 In quoting Franck,
our copy is Gelinek's German translation. "We insert
by parentheses ; but some parentheses are the origi-
nals. In writing we have used the expressions of the
original, translating them literally into English. And
the reader will take notice that what he reads is a
literal quotation, notwithstanding the quotation
marks are not inserted. It is a book written by
quotations. We have taken the liberty of sometimes
restoring the first h in Iahoh to its original ch and
;
the second h to its primal s. S softens to h in Greece
and Asia : Iachos, Iachoh, Iahoh. We have usually
read the Hebrew square letters alone leaving out
;
the more modern vowel-points, as they are often a
Rabbinical commentary upon the ancient word. It
was not difficult for an ancient Rabbin, Before Christ,
to change a n into a ft ; and the popular reverence
for anything "written" (scripture) prevented close
criticism or it had been perhaps acquiesced in by
;
the learned as an advance in idea, tending to an im-
provement upon the old religion.
The two books are one work ! It is necessary to
fix this statement in the reader's mind. We have no
wish to give an unfair reviewer the opportunity to
cut our work in twain and then criticise each part by
itself. Having made this preliminary observation,
the burden is thrown on any censorious critic to show
that he has fairly examined both volumes together.
PREFACE. Vll
It would certainly be requiring too much of an author
that the authorities given in the first should all be quo-
ted over again in the second more especially where
;
they are massed in such numbers as to render this nearly
if not quite impossible. It has been a peculiarity of
this work, in both volumes, that the author accom-
panies the statement of each fact by a reference to
the authority for it the same as in a lawyer's plead-
;
ing. The accumulation of authorities therefore be-
comes necessarily very great, but not more so, we
trust, than the importance of the questions demands
at our hands.
The author of this treatise is a believer in Revealed
—
Religion the Revelation by Power. That which
the divinely-inspired Power in men has revealed is
a Revelation unto us ! No matter what materials
these prophets have had to work with, no matter
—
that they have uttered it from within them their
improvement, if you please, upon modes of thought
—
long passed away still it is a Revelation to us for
;
it is the Power of G-od manifested through man !
The last twenty centuries have not passed in vain.
We have not to retrace our steps to the point of
divergence between the religions ofthe ancient world,
and to begin human life anew what we have won is
;
ours ! We cannot go back again to the paths of
Arabian thought for it is not given to us to taber-
;
nacle in forms and customs which no longer live on
earth. Our life is founded in the present ; and from
Vlll PREFACE.
it we must gather the sources of our own fruitful-
ness. Let us act in accordance with our confession,
and, being limited, let us confine our reasonings and
our assertions respecting Grod's Providence to the
facts within reach of human observation. Since God
ordained these he intended us to take account of
them.
It is a rule of pleading that the attorney must state
in his declaration only the facts out of which his
cause of action arises. After the facts have been
It
given the Court applies the law to the case. is
this rule which we have followed in our preceding
volume, and continue to observe in this. We put in
thefacts, and Human Opinion, sufficiently educated,
will pass judgment on them.
INTRODUCTION.
THE SOURCES OF MOSES AND THE PROPHETS.
"
Moses will be summoned upwards, the Steward and Guardian of the Sacred
Mysteries ofthe living God." —Philo Judaeus.
Lex et Prophetae primitus
Hoc protulerunt. —Ancient Christian Hymn.
If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if
one rose from the dead.—Luke, xvi. 31.
Open your ears, ye Initiated, and receive the most sacred mysteries.—
Philo Judaeus.
"The Mysteries were religious solemnities in which
no one could participate without having undergone
a previous ceremony of admission and initiation.
In the Orphic Mysteries, the worship of Dionysus
was the centre of all religious ideas. He was the
God from whom the liberation of souls was ex-
pected. All the Greek religious poetry treating of
death and the world beyond the grave refers to the
Deities whose influence was supposed to be exercised
in the Dark Region at the centre of the earth.
The Mysteries of the Greeks were connected with
the worship of these Gods alone. Neither the Eleu-
sinian nor any other of the *Established Mysteries r
of Greece obtained any influence upon the literature*
of the nation, since the hymns sung and the prayers
recited at them were only intended for particular
X INTRODUCTION.
parts of the imposing ceremony, and were not im-
parted to the public.
On the other hand, there was a society of persons
who performed the rites of a mystical worship, but
were not exclusively attached to a particular temple
and festival, and who did not confine their notions to
the initiated, but published them to others and com-
mitted them to literary works.1 These were the fol-
lowers of Orpheus, the Orphikoi, who, under the gui-
dance of the ancient mystical poet Orpheus, dedi-
cated themselves to the worship of Bacchus, in which
they hoped to find satisfaction for an ardent longing
after the soothing and elevating influences of religion !
The Orphic legends and poems related in great part
to Dionysus Zagreus (closely connected with Demeter
and Cora), who was combined as an Infernal Deity
(Osiris) with Hades (Pluto), and upon whom the fol-
puri-
lowers of Orpheus founded their hopes of the
fication and ultimate immortality of the soul ! But
their mode of celebrating this worship was very dif-
ferent from the popular rites of Bacchus. When they
had tasted the mystic sacrificial feast of raw flesh
torn from the ox of Dionysus they partook of no
other animal food. They wore white linen garments
like Oriental (Hebrew, Syrian, Arab, Persian) and
Egyptian priests. "—Ottfried Mutter, Hist. Greek Lit.,
II.
16, 230-238 j Maury, p. 337.
Discussion fails to convince. The author therefore
tried to find a point in the Bible that would be vital
—
and save talking one clearly exposing the Bible's
;
point of departure. This is to be found in the word
Sod (a Mystery). It also means a secret gathering,
synod, assembly, association, communion.
1As in the Hebrew Sacred Books.
INTRODUCTION. XI
Sod1 Iholi (the Mysteries of Iahoh) are for those
—
ivhofear him.2 Psalm, xxv. 14.
This is the gate of Iahoh,
Let the Zadikim (the just, the initiated, the peiests) enter through it.
—
Psalm, cxviii. 19, 20.
Al is terrible in the great Sod (assembly, Myste-
ries) of the Kedeshirn (the priests, the holy, initia-
ted).—Psalm, lxxxix. 8.
And his Sod (Mysteries) are for the Isarim
(the
—
good, initiated). Proverbs, iii. 32.
We have together made sweet the Sod (Mysteries);
In the house ofAlahim we have walked with the throng.
—Psalm, lv. 14.
Al Ihoh o-iae lano
Al is Iahoh and shines (Iar the Sun in Egypt) to us !
Bind the feast (sacrifice) with cords unto the altar's horns.
—Psalm, cxviii. 27.
1 SOD, "arcanum." SOD means Mysteries. —Schindlers Penteglott, 1201;
Psalm, 1y. Septuagint. It is a singular noun with a plural signification.
Compare iiusTERiox, a secret; a mystery ; commonly a religious mystery. —
Ponnegarts Greek Lexicon, 864. "God's Mysteries." —1 Cor., iv. 2.
We find a Mystery (Orgion) used for a part of the Mysteries, Lucian, iv.
268 ; it means the same as Orgia " Secret Mysteries." —Donnegan, 913.
We leave others to judge whether Araza "arcanum" (—Seder Lason, 27)
is obviously derived from the Ionian Araz (Demeter), the Hebrew Arats
(Araz), Earth, Aras the Sun.—Compare Eraze, the Earth, u^ed as an adverb
by Homer. Compare Raza "arcanum."—llie Sohar, Idra Rabba, xxxii. 688.
Rosenroth.
2 That s,for the initiated!—Nork, Worterbuch.
i
Kadosh isIahoh. —Psalm, lxxxix. 18. Kedeshim istheplural.
Tacitus, Hist., v. 5,says that the gloomy Jewishforms of worship have no
conformity to the rites of Bacchus which were celebrated with mirth and
gaiety. Tacitus differs from the Mishna, for this asserts the contrary. He is
also contradicted by passages taken from the Psalms of David. Tacitus lived
in the time of Vespasian, and the ceremonies of the Rabbis at Rome might
well have appeared gloomy enough to aEoman. But Ehrmann {Beitrdge z. e.
Gesch. der Schulen und der Cultur tenter den Juden, p. 37) says Tacitus shows
great ignorance of the Jewish Religion. The Orphic Mysteries differed ^like
the Jewish rites) from the upopidar rites'" of Bacchus.—K. 0. Mullcr, 232.
The followers of Orpheus aimed at an ascetic purity ofmaimers, and did not
indulge in unrestrained pleasure.—K. 0. Miiller, Hist. Greek Lit., 232.