The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" RevelationsGraves, Kersey
Religion
The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" Revelations
Graves, Kersey
Free thought
Here we will call the attention of the reader to the resemblance between
Moses and the still more ancient Egyptian Mises, or Bacchus. It is
so striking, that we can not resist the conviction that they were
originally closely connected with each other. 1. Bacchus, like Moses,
was born in Egypt. 2. Bacchus, or Mises, was also exposed to danger on
the River Nile, like Moses. 3. Bacchus lived on a mountain in Arabia
called Nisas; Moses sojourned on Mount Sinai in Arabia. 4. Bacchus
passed through the Red Sea dry-shod with a multitude of men, women,, and
children, as Moses is represented as doing. 5. Bacchus likewise parted
the waters of the River Orontes, as Moses did those of Jordan. 6.
Bacchus commanded the sun to stand still, as Moses' friend Joshua did.
7. Bacchus, with his wand, caused a spring of wine to spring from the
earth, as Moses did a spring of water to flow from a rock with the "rod
of God," or "the rod of divination." 8. Mises, like Moses, also engraved
his laws on tables of stone. 9. Both have been represented in pictures
with rays coming out of their heads, indicative of the light of the sun.
Thus, it will be observed, the resemblance runs through nearly the whole
line of their history. That Bacchus figured in history anterior to the
time of Moses, no person versed in Oriental history can doubt,--a fact
which impels us to the conclusion that the two stories got mixed before
the history of Moses was written! There is one important chapter in the
practical life of Moses we can not omit to notice before we close his
history, as it furnishes a still fuller illustration of his character.
We allude to his deliverance of "the Lord's holy people" from Egyptian
bondage. Several of the incidents in this narrative are incredibly
absurd; and some of them of such demoralizing tendency, that it becomes
the duty of the moralist to expose them to view. The conduct of his
God Jehovah toward the King of Egypt in this case is so repulsive and
unjust, that it must call forth the condemnation of every honest-minded
reader possessing a true sense of justice.
1. We are told that Jehovah, through Moses, frequently ordered Pharaoh
to let his people go, and then as often hardened his heart that he
should _not_ let them go; and finally punished him with death because he
was unwilling to let them go.
It would certainly be difficult to discover any sense or any justice or
any consistency in such conduct.
2. It looks like not only a strange kind of _justice_, but monstrous
_injustice_, for Jehovah or any God to kill a man for doing what he
had purposely _compelled_ him to do. Live frogs, lice, flies, blood,
vengeance, and death were poured out upon the king and his subjects,
ostensibly for the purpose of compelling him to liberate the Jewish
nation; and yet it was morally impossible for him to do so, because the
same Jehovah had planted in his mind the determination not to let them
go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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