Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols — John Shaqi
Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied SymbolsInman, Thomas
Religion
Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols
Inman, Thomas
Christian art and symbolism; Symbolism
It may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is, or has ever
been, adopted into the service of Religion, without a definite purpose.
If it be supposed that a religion is built upon the foundation of a
distinct revelation from the Almighty, as the Hebrew is said to be,
there is a full belief that every emblem, rite, ceremony, dress, symbol,
etc., has a special signification. Many earnest Christians, indeed,
see in Judaic ordinances a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. I have, for
example, heard a pious man assert that "leprosy" was only another word
for "sin"; but he was greatly staggered in this belief when I pointed
out to him that if a person's whole body was affected he was no longer
unclean (Lev. xiii. 13), which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to
demonstrate that when a sinner was as black as hell he was the equal of
a saint. According to such an interpreter, the paschal lamb is a type of
Jesus, and consequently all whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of
wood, lintels, and side-posts (Exod. xii. 22, 28). By the same style of
metaphorical reasoning, Jesus was typified by the "scape-goat," and the
proof is clear, for one was driven away into the wilderness, and the
other voluntarily went there--one to be destroyed, the other to be
tempted by the devil! Hence we infer that there is nothing repugnant to
the minds of the pious in an examination respecting the use of symbols,
and into that which is shadowed forth by them. What has been done for
Judaism may be attempted for other forms of religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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