Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions: Being a Comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles with those of the Heathen Nations of Antiquity Considering also their Origin and MeaningDoane, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions: Being a Comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles with those of the Heathen Nations of Antiquity Considering also their Origin and Meaning
_Horus_, the Egyptian Saviour, performed great miracles, among which was
that of raising the dead to life.[256:8]
_Osiris_ of Egypt also performed great miracles;[256:9] and so did the
virgin goddess _Isis_.
Pilgrimages were made to the temples of Isis, in Egypt, by the sick.
Diodorus, the Grecian historian, says that:
"Those who go to consult in dreams the goddess Isis recover
perfect health. Many whose cure has been despaired of by
physicians have by this means been saved, and others who have
long been deprived of sight, or of some other part of the
body, by taking refuge, so to speak, in the arms of the
goddess, have been restored to the enjoyment of their
faculties."[257:1]
_Serapis_, the Egyptian Saviour, performed great miracles, principally
those of healing the sick. He was called "The Healer of the
World."[257:2]
_Marduk_, the Assyrian God, the "Logos," the "Eldest Son of Hea;" "He
who made Heaven and Earth;" the "Merciful One;" the "Life-Giver," &c.,
performed great miracles, among which was that of raising the dead to
life.[257:3]
_Bacchus_, son of Zeus by the virgin Semele, was a great performer of
miracles, among which may be mentioned his changing water into
wine,[257:4] as it is recorded of Jesus in the Gospels.
"In his gentler aspects he is the giver of joy, the healer of
sicknesses, the guardian against plagues. As such he is even a law-giver
and a promoter of peace and concord. As kindling new or strange thoughts
in the mind, he is a giver of wisdom and the revealer of hidden secrets
of the future."[257:5]
The legends related of this god state that on one occasion Pantheus,
King of Thebes, sent his attendants to seize Bacchus, the "vagabond
leader of a faction"--as he called him. This they were unable to do, as
the multitude who followed him were too numerous. They succeeded,
however, in capturing one of his disciples, Acetes, who was led away and
shut up fast in prison; but while they were getting ready the
instruments of execution, _the prison doors came open of their own
accord, and the chains fell from his limbs_, and when they looked for
him he was nowhere to be found.[257:6] Here is still another edition of
"Peter in prison."
_Æsculapius_ was another great performer of miracles. The ancient Greeks
said of him that he not only cured the sick of the most malignant
diseases, _but even raised the dead_.
A writer in Bell's Pantheon says:
"As the Greeks always carried the encomiums of their great men
beyond the truth, so they feigned that Æsculapius was so
expert in medicine as not only to cure the sick, but even to
raise the dead."[258:1]
Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, speaking of Æsculapius, says:
"He sometimes appeared unto them (the Cilicians) in dreams and
visions, and sometimes restored the sick to health."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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