Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Being...

[316:1] The Rev. Dr. Geikie makes the assertion that: "With the call to repent, John united a significant rite for all who were willing to own their sins, and promise amendment of life. It was the new and striking requirement of baptism, which John had been sent by divine appointment to INTRODUCE." (Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 394.)

[316:2] See Galatians, ii. 7-9. Acts, x. and xi.

[316:3] See The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. pp. 658 and 472.

[316:4] See Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 7, ch. ii.

[316:5] Monumental Christianity, p. 385.

[317:1] "Among all nations, and from the very earliest period, WATER has been used as a species of religious sacrament. . . . Water was the agent by means of which everything was regenerated or born again. Hence, in all nations, we find the Dove, or Divine Love, operating by means of its agent, water, and all nations using the ceremony of plunging, or, as we call it, baptizing, for the remission of sins, to introduce the candidate to a regeneration, to a new birth unto righteousness." (Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 529.)

"Baptism is a very ancient rite pertaining to heathen religions, whether of Asia, Africa, Europe or America." (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416.)

"Baptism, or purification by water, was a ceremony common to all religions of antiquity. It consists in being made clean from some supposed pollution or defilement." (Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 201.)

"L'usage de ce Baptéme par immersion, qui subsista dans l'Occident jusqu' au 8e ciècle, se maintient encore dans l'Eglise Greque: c'est celui que Jean le Précurseur administra, dans le Jourdain, à Jesus Christ même. Il fut pratiqué chez les Juifs, chez les Grecs, et chez presque tous les peuples, bien des siècles avant l'existence de la religion Chrétienne." (D'Ancarville: Res., vol. i. p. 292.)

[317:2] See Amberly's Analysis, p. 61. Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 42. Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 69, and Lillie's Buddhism, pp. 55 and 184.

[317:3] Lillie's Buddhism, p. 134.

[318:1] Life and Religion of the Hindus, p. 94.

[318:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 125.

"Every orthodox Hindu is perfectly persuaded that the dirtiest water, if taken from a sacred stream and applied to his body, either externally or internally, will purify his soul." (Prof. Monier Williams: Hinduism, p. 157.) The Egyptians bathed in the water of the Nile; the Chaldeans and Persians in the Euphrates, and the Hindus, at we have seen, in the Ganges, all of which were considered as "sacred waters" by the different nations. The Jews looked upon the Jordan in the same manner.

Herodotus, speaking of the Persians' manners, says:

"They (the Persians) neither make water, nor spit, nor wash their hands in a river, nor defile the stream with urine, nor do they allow any one else to do so, but they pay extreme veneration to all rivers." (Hist. lib. i. ch. 138.)

[318:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 176.

[318:4] Hist. Manichee, lib. ix. ch. vi. sect. xvi. in Anac., vol. ii. p. 65. See also, Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 249, and Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.

[318:5] "Pro infantibus non utuntur circumcisione, sed tantum baptismo seu lotione ad animæ purificationem internam. Infantem ad sacerdotem in ecclesiam adductum sistunt coram sole et igne, quâ factâ ceremoniâ, eundem sanctiorem existimant. D. Lord dicit quod aquam ad hoc afferunt in cortice arboris Holm: ea autem arbor revers est Haum Magorum, cujus mentionem aliâ occasione supra fecimus. Alias, aliquando fit immergendo in magnum vas aquæ, ut dicit Tavernier. Post talem lotionem seu baptismum, sacerdos imponit nomen à parentibus inditum." (Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers., p. 414.) After this Hyde goes on to say, that when he comes to be fifteen years of age he is confirmed by receiving the girdle, and the sudra or cassock.

[319:1] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. xxv. Higgins: Anac., vol. i pp. 218 and 222. Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 189. King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 51.

[319:2] De Præscrip. ch. xi.

[319:3] Ibid.

[319:4] "Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suos."

[319:5] "Semper enim cruci baptismus jungitur." (Aug. Temp. Ser. ci.)

[319:6] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 69, and Monumental Christianity, p. 385.

[319:7] "Sacerdos, stipatum me religiosa cohorte, deducit ad proximas balucas; et prius sueto lavraco traditum, prœfatus deûm veniam, purissimē circumrorans abluit." (Apuleius: Milesi, ii. citat. a Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. p. 69.)

[320:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416. Dunlap: Mysteries Adoni, p. 139.

[320:2] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.

[320:3] See Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. pp. 67-69.

[320:4] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 38. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 65.

[320:5] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 41.

[320:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 121, Gainsburgh's Essenes, and Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 66, 67.

[321:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.

[321:2] "Holy Water"—water wherein the person is baptized, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Church of England Catechism.)

[321:3] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 333, 334, and Higgins' Anacalypsis, ii. p. 65.

[321:4] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 80 and 232, and Baring-Gould's Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.

"De-là-vint, que pour devenir capable d'entendre les secrets de la création, révélés dans ces mêmes mystères, il fallut se faire régénérer par l'initiation. Cette cérémonie, par laquelle, on apprenoit les vrais principes de la vie, s'opéroit par le moyen de l'eau qui voit été celui de la régénération du monde. On conduisoit sur les bords de l'Ilissus le candidat qui devoit être initié; apres l'avoir purifié avec le sel et l'eau de la mer, on repandoit de l'orge sur lui, on le couronnoit de fleurs, et l'Hydranos ou le Baptisseur le plongeoit dans le fleuve." (D'Ancarville: Res., vol. i. p. 292. Anac., ii. p. 65.)

[321:5] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 232.

[322:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 306, 313, 320, 366. Baring-Gould's Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. pp. 392, 393, and Dupuis, p. 242.

[322:2] Mallet: Northern Antiquities, p. 206.