-
Articles/Ads
Article Untitled Article ← Page 4 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
had lived the time allowed by their sacred books , he was drowned hi the Nile , and buried with great state in the city of Memphis . After his death ( which sometimes happened in the course of nature ) , the whole kingdom was in mourning , until a successor was found
possessing the proper marks and characteristics to represent the deity , when all Egypt rejoiced , as though Osiris had been restored to life . An examination of the object of these ceremonies must prove of interest to the Masonic body , if the remote antiquity of the worship of Isis be taken into consideration .
The mysteries involved in these proceedings seem to have been founded on the two principles which the Egyptians admitted as existing in the world , viz . —one , Grood , personified by Isis and Osiris ; the other , Bad , by Typhon . The two former represented what in man is held to be Reason ; the latter , those passions which are subversive of morality . In the human frame , health and an absence of
infirmities proceeded from the two deities ; and all maladies and sicknesses from Typhon . In the heavens , and as regarded the elements good order and regularity ^ of motion were produced on the one side , and tempests , with all convulsions of nature , bringing calamities to
mankind , on the other . These principles will be the more understood , as Isis and Osiris were acknowledged as the moon and the sun ; which were held to superintend the succession of the seasons , light and darkness , as well as to bestow on mortals happiness and good fortune .
It may be worth inquiry to ascertain how far the Israelites were influenced by these tenets . It is quite evident that they were thoroughly acquainted with the idolatry of Egypt , from their application to Aaron , during the time when Moses was absent on the mountain in order to receive the Tables of Stone ( Exod . xxiv . 12 , • « X A 1 * - ¦• _ - ¦ m s * ¦ - ¦ .-a - ^ - -a - — -.
xxxii . 4 ) . And immediately before his death , Joshua ordered the people ( Josh . xxiv . 14 ) " to put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the Flood ( i . e . the Bed Sea ) , and in Egypt ; " referring clearly to the worship of Osiris . In the same way , Jeroboam , on the revolt of the ten tribes , upon setting up two golden calves , one at Bethel and the other in Dan , in order to
prevent the people from going up to Jerusalem , made use of the same words ( 1 Kings xii . 28 ) : " Behold thy gods , O Israel , which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt . " In the book of Tobit , we likewise find an allusion to this idolatry ( Tob . i . 5 ) : " The house of my father Napthali sacrificed unto the heifer Baal . " * This
expression is taken literally from the Septuagint , where the feminine Greek article is annexed to Baal , a deity usually mentioned in the masculine gender , and who is referred to 2 Kings xxiii . 5 . Nor was this worship of recent origin ( Numbers xxv . 1 ) , as the Israelites , when encamped in the Wilderness of Sin , were prevailed on to
* It is remarkable that , in the Vulgate ( Ilosea x . 5 ) , the word vacca , a cow , is made use of when mentioning the object of worship at Bethel ; and in the text of Exodus , Kings , and in other places , vitnlm is always found , and is alone translated in the English version of Tobit , " an heifer . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
had lived the time allowed by their sacred books , he was drowned hi the Nile , and buried with great state in the city of Memphis . After his death ( which sometimes happened in the course of nature ) , the whole kingdom was in mourning , until a successor was found
possessing the proper marks and characteristics to represent the deity , when all Egypt rejoiced , as though Osiris had been restored to life . An examination of the object of these ceremonies must prove of interest to the Masonic body , if the remote antiquity of the worship of Isis be taken into consideration .
The mysteries involved in these proceedings seem to have been founded on the two principles which the Egyptians admitted as existing in the world , viz . —one , Grood , personified by Isis and Osiris ; the other , Bad , by Typhon . The two former represented what in man is held to be Reason ; the latter , those passions which are subversive of morality . In the human frame , health and an absence of
infirmities proceeded from the two deities ; and all maladies and sicknesses from Typhon . In the heavens , and as regarded the elements good order and regularity ^ of motion were produced on the one side , and tempests , with all convulsions of nature , bringing calamities to
mankind , on the other . These principles will be the more understood , as Isis and Osiris were acknowledged as the moon and the sun ; which were held to superintend the succession of the seasons , light and darkness , as well as to bestow on mortals happiness and good fortune .
It may be worth inquiry to ascertain how far the Israelites were influenced by these tenets . It is quite evident that they were thoroughly acquainted with the idolatry of Egypt , from their application to Aaron , during the time when Moses was absent on the mountain in order to receive the Tables of Stone ( Exod . xxiv . 12 , • « X A 1 * - ¦• _ - ¦ m s * ¦ - ¦ .-a - ^ - -a - — -.
xxxii . 4 ) . And immediately before his death , Joshua ordered the people ( Josh . xxiv . 14 ) " to put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the Flood ( i . e . the Bed Sea ) , and in Egypt ; " referring clearly to the worship of Osiris . In the same way , Jeroboam , on the revolt of the ten tribes , upon setting up two golden calves , one at Bethel and the other in Dan , in order to
prevent the people from going up to Jerusalem , made use of the same words ( 1 Kings xii . 28 ) : " Behold thy gods , O Israel , which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt . " In the book of Tobit , we likewise find an allusion to this idolatry ( Tob . i . 5 ) : " The house of my father Napthali sacrificed unto the heifer Baal . " * This
expression is taken literally from the Septuagint , where the feminine Greek article is annexed to Baal , a deity usually mentioned in the masculine gender , and who is referred to 2 Kings xxiii . 5 . Nor was this worship of recent origin ( Numbers xxv . 1 ) , as the Israelites , when encamped in the Wilderness of Sin , were prevailed on to
* It is remarkable that , in the Vulgate ( Ilosea x . 5 ) , the word vacca , a cow , is made use of when mentioning the object of worship at Bethel ; and in the text of Exodus , Kings , and in other places , vitnlm is always found , and is alone translated in the English version of Tobit , " an heifer . "