Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its HistoryBesant, Annie
Religion
Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History
Besant, Annie
Christianity -- Controversial literature
withholding its wonted munificence, that placed an unreal sceptre in his
gripe. He was nailed to the cross, in indication of his entire defeat.
And the superscription of his infamous title, 'THIS IS THE KING OF THE
JEWS,' expressively indicated that _Famine, Want_, or _Poverty_, ruled
the destinies of the most slavish, beggarly, and mean race of men with
whom they had the honour of being acquainted" ("Diegesis," p. 187).
While it may very likely be true that the miserable aspect given to
Jesus crucified is copied from some such original as Mr. Taylor here
sketches, we are tolerably certain that the general idea of the crucifix
had the solar origin described above.
Very closely joined to the notion of the cross is the idea of the
TRINITY IN UNITY, and we need not delay upon it long. It is as universal
in Eastern religions as the cross, and comes from the same idea; all
life springs from a trinity in unity in man, and, therefore, God is
three in one. This trinity is, of course, symbolised by the cross, and
especially by the lotus, and any "three in one" leaf; from this has come
to Christianity the conventional triple foliage so constantly seen in
Church carvings, the _fleur-de-lis_, the triangle, etc., which are
now--as of old--accepted as the emblems of the trinity. The persons of
the trinity are found each with his own name; in India, Brahma, Vishnu,
Siva, and it is Vishnu who becomes incarnate; in Egypt different cities
had different trinities, and "we have a hieroglyphical inscription in
the British Museum as early as the reign of Sevechus of the eighth
century before the Christian era, showing that the doctrine of Trinity
in Unity already formed part of their religion, and that in each of the
two groups last mentioned the three gods only made one person"
("Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christology," by S. Sharpe, p. 14).
Mr. Sharpe might have gone to much earlier times and "already" have
found the adoration of the trinity in unity; as far back as the first
who bowed in worship before the generative force of the male three in
one. Osiris, Horus, and Ra form one of the Egyptian trinities; Horus the
Son, is also one of a trinity in unity made into an amulet, and called
the Great God, the Son God, and the Spirit God. Horus is the slayer of
Typhon, the evil one, and is sometimes represented as standing on its
head, and as piercing its head with a spear, reminding us of Krishna,
the incarnation of Vishnu, the second person of the Indian Trinity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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