world, and his religion assumes that shape which we find impressed upon the Gospel-histories of the New Covenant. But this majestic scheme of an Almighty Creator and Preserver of the Universe surrounded by the Heavenly Host was contrasted, in the later theology of the Hebrews, with a corresponding picture of a rival agency, always engaged in counteracting the benevolent purposes of Jehovah. Satan was the name of this demon or hostile spirit; and under his commands were a legion of evil spirits, ever abiding his bidding and ready to do his will. This particular phase of the religious belief of the Jews is not recognised in their history before the return from the Babylonish Captivity: an 1 as the religion of the Persians is known to have turned upon the same peculiarities, it is a reasonable inference that the Jews first acquired these views during the seventy years which the principal men of their nation passed among the Chaldean, Babylonian and Persian philosophers, who followed the doctrines of Zoroaster.* From the time that this new element entered into the religion of the Jews, a corresponding meaning is found attached to the word Satan, p, which formerly signified * Hyde and Prideaux, working up the Persian legends and their own conjectures into a very agreeable story, represent Zoroaster as a contemporary of Darius Hystaspes. But it is sufficient to observe, that the Greek writers, who lived almost in the age of Darius, agree in placing the æra of Zoroaster many hundred, or even thousand, years before their own time. The judicious criticism of Mr Moyle perceived, and maintained against his uncle Dr Prideaux, the antiquity of the Persian prophet. See his work, vol. ii. GIBB. ch. viii, vol. i, p. 319. of the 12 vol. 8vo edition. That ancient idiom [IN WHICH THE ZENDAVESTA WAS COMPOSED] was called the Zend. The language of the commentary, the Pehlvi, though much more modern, has ceased many ages ago to be a living tongue. This fact alone (if it is allowed as authentic) sufficiently warrants the antiquity of those writings, which d'Anquetil has brought into Europe, and translated into French. GIBB. ch. viii, vol. i, p. 319 of the 12 vol. 8vo edition. nothing more than an enemy, or adversary, but now began to be the designation of the power of evil. Used in this sense, for the Devil, the word Satan occurs in only four passages of the old Testament; and even in one of these it is inaccurately so rendered in our English bible, for the word means nothing more than adversary in that verse also. The place where it is inaccurately rendered by the English word Satan, meaning the Devil, is in Psalm cix, verse 6: Set thou a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand. Here there seems to be no necessity for understanding the word to have any other meaning than that of adversary, by which a very satisfactory sense for the passage is obtained. But the other passages, in which the word Satan is found in its new sense, occur in books which were undoubtedly written after the return of the Jews from Babylonwritten, i. e. wholly, and not compiled out of ancient originals, whose words have generally been preserved entire. They are the following: I CHRON. xxvi, 1. And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. JOB i, 6. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan &c. &c. ZECHARIAH iii, 1-2. And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, "The Lord rebuke thee &c." The books of Chronicles are universally admitted, as has been already often remarked in this work, to belong to the later period of the Jewish Commonwealth. Zechariah also is admitted to have written about the same time, and those who still blindly look upon the book of Job as a work of very remote antiquity, have to encounter and explain the difficulties occasioned by the Greek terms Pleiades, Orion, and others, therein occurring, which were not known to the Jews until after their intercourse with the Greeks. But the passage in Chronicles may be compared with the corresponding narrative in II SAM. xxiv, 1, where David's sin in numbering the people is described : And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. Here it is the anger of the Lord against Israel, which prompts David to commit an act that was disagreeable to God: but in Chronicles it is the enmity of the Devil or Evil Spirit, which impels the king to sin. The former account flowed naturally from the opinions which the ancient Israelites held concerning the anthropomorphism and, consequently, the human feelings of anger, friendship and revenge, which they ascribed to the Almighty. The latter narrative was written when the Jews had imbibed other notions of evil, which they were probably the more ready to adopt, because the character of the Deity was thereby relieved from the imputation of sometimes being the cause which impelled mankind to sin. The two antagonistic principles of the Persian or Chaldean theology easily caught the warm imaginations of the Jewish people, who did not perceive that the belief in a God of Evil narrowed the dominion of the God of Good, in the same proportion as it exalted his moral perfections. Another word, which furnishes aid to our present subject, is the word Nabi "prophet," which, as already hinted in page 139, was either a new word, acquired by the Jews at Babylon, or was afterwards used in an altered sense in consequence of the arts of astrology, prophecy and divination, for which the Chaldees were famous, not only in the time of Cyrus, Ezra and Nehemiah, but 500 years afterwards, at Rome, Alexandria, and in almost every country of the known world. The notices which the Greek and Roman writers have left concerning these peculiarities of the Israelitish people, are in general very slight; this arises, no doubt, from the reserve which the Jews always showed towards other nations, amounting, in fact, to moroseness and animosity towards all foreigners. Yet Diogenes Laertius, in his Proëm, section vi, has described the Jewish theology as an offshoot from that of the Chaldees, to whom he attributes the power of divination or prophesy, and the belief in two opposite principles, the one of evil and the other of good. The whole section is curious, and bears so close a relation to the present subject that no excuse is needed for quoting it at length: : English translation. They say that the Chaldees occupied themselves with astronomy and foretelling and the Magi with the worship of the gods, and sacrifices and prayers, as being the only persons whom the gods listened to. And that they make declarations concerning the being and origin of the gods, whom they state to be Fire, Earth, and Water. That they coudemn images, and especially those persons who say that the gods are male and female. 7. That they deliver discourses on justice, and think it unholy to dispose of the dead by burning them. That they approve of a union with one's mother or daughter, as Sotion observes in his 23rd book. That they study divination and prophesy, and say that the gods appear to them. That the air is full of forms, which by emanation from the burning of incense are admitted to the sight of those who have sharp eyes. That they forbid the wearing of artificial and golden ornaments. Their clothing is white; their bed a pallet: their food is herbs, and cheese, and a cheap kind of bread; their staff is a cane, with which, it is said, they pierce their cheese, and so divide and eat it. 8. But they are not acquainted with magical divination, as Aristotle observes in his Treatise on Magic, and Dinon in the fifth book of his History. The latter also says that Zoroaster, interpreted, means 'the starworshipper,' and Hermodorus says the same. Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Philosophy, says that they are more ancient than the Egyptians, and that they hold two principles, a good genius, and an evil genius, the former named Zeus [Jupiter] or Oromasdes, the latter Hades [Pluto] or Arimanius. Hermippus also mentions this in his first book on the Magi, and Eudoxus in his Period, and Theopompus in the eighth book of his Philippics. : 9. He says also that, according to the Magi, men will rise from the dead, and become immortal, and that things will remain by their appellations. The same is related by Eudoxus of Rhodes. But Hecatæus says that, according to the Magi, the gods are also born and Clearchus of Soli, in his book on Education, says that the Gymnosophists are descended from the Magi. Some say that the Jews also are an offshoot from them. Moreover those who have written about the Magi, condemn Herodotus, observing that Xerxes did not throw his javelin up at the sun, nor cast chains upon the sea, because these have been declared by the Magi to be gods: but that his removing statues was a very likely thing for him to do. Even the Jewish writings themselves bear testimony to the Oriental origin of their celestial hierarchy for the Jerusalem Talmud says that the names of the angels, as well as of the months, came from Babylon with the Jews who were returning from captivity.* In haste to pass on to the more immediate objects of this work, I leave this brief sketch to be filled out by others who may entertain the same views, with more leisure and greater ability to extend them. * See Beausobre, Histoire de la Manichéisme. tom. ii, p. 624. Jamblichus, in his Ægyptiaca, § ii, ch. 3, speaks of angels, archangels and seraphim. |