History of Religion: A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great SystemsMenzies, Allan
Religion
History of Religion: A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems
Menzies, Allan
Religions
A. O. Lange, "Die Aegypter" in De la Saussaye. _Records of the Past_,
First Series (1873-81), vols. ii., iv., vi., viii., x., xii. Second
Series, 1888-92, vols. ii.-vi.
Benson and Gourlay, _The Temple of Mut in Asher_, 1899.
Naville, _The Old Egyptian Faith_, translated by Colin Campbell,
1909.
Colin Campbell, _Two Theban Queens_, 1909. A study of the
inscriptions in two royal tombs.
PART III
THE SEMITIC GROUP
CHAPTER X
THE SEMITIC RELIGION
As used by the modern scholar, the term Semites or Semitic races
includes the Arabs, the Hebrews, the Canaanites and Phenicians, the
Syrians or Arameans, the Babylonians and the Assyrians. This
enumeration differs from that of the tenth chapter of Genesis, where
the children of Shem include Elam, or the dwellers in Susiana, and
Lud or the Lydians, while the tribes who dwelt in Canaan before the
Hebrews are placed in another and a lower division of the human
family. The principle of the enumeration in Genesis is probably that
of geographical neighbourhood; the modern principle is that of
linguistic affinity. The peoples mentioned above spoke, or still
speak, languages which belong to the same family of human speech. The
inference from affinity of language to affinity of blood is in this
case a strong one, so that the peoples using the Semitic tongues are
considered to be of the same race. To the question, where the cradle
of the Semitic race is to be sought, most scholars now answer that we
must seek it in Arabia. From this isolated land the Semitic
dispersion spread in every direction, till Semitic language and
customs filled the earth from the south of Arabia to the north of
Syria, and from the mountains of Iran to the Mediterranean, and far
along the northern shores of Africa; of Babylonia and Assyria, where
Semitic culture and religion assumed at the dawn of human history a
very special and peculiar form, we have already spoken. We have now
to speak of Semitic religion as found in the lands bordering on the
eastern Mediterranean in a more original form. The Semitic peoples
outside of Babylonia founded no lasting empires, and showed no great
aptitude for art or for literary style; but, in point of religion,
they communicated to the world impulses of immeasurable force, which
will act powerfully on the world as long as the Prophet is named or
Christ preached.
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