The preternatural apparatus of both faiths (original and borrowed) is
the same. The four genii of Death—Amset (under Isis), Hapi (Nephthys),
Tuamutef (Neith), and Khebsenauf (Sebk)—became the four archangels. Of
Urim and Thummim, the latter is the plural of Thmei (Themis), the blind
or headless goddess of Truth and Justice.[477] Even such phrases as ‘I
am that I am’[478] are loans from the hierogrammat; Ankh (I am Life)
was rendered Yahveh (Jehovah). This ‘ineffable name’[479] is borrowed
by some, Colenso included, from Semitic heathenism; but Brugsch shows
that Egypt supplied the Mosaic conception of the Creator. There
appears, indeed, direct derivation in the unity of the Deity and in the
duality of Typhon, Set, Satan, the Evil Spirit. Later ages copied the
local Triads of Kemi, in which the third proceeded from the other two.
Both ecclesiastical establishments contained Prophets (_Sem_),[480]
High Priests,[481] Priests, ‘Holy Fathers,’ and Scribes. The Decalogue
is a _résumé_ of the forty-two commandments in the Deadbook (chapter
125). The portable shrines of the great Egyptian gods originated the
Tabernacle, which grew to be the Temple; it corresponds with the Σχήνη
ἱερὰ or movable tent of the Carthaginians. The African practice of
circumcision was probably intended originally as a prophylactic against
syphilis, of which traces have been found in prehistoric bones. The
peculiar Jewish hatred for pork is reasonless unless we explain it by a
superstitious horror of the Typhonian beast. Rationalists tell us that
the meat was religiously forbidden because unwholesome in the tropics,
a _causa non causa_: it is the favourite food in the Brazil, in China,
and in Christian India; even the Maráthás will eat wild hog; nor are
the habits of the animal more filthy than the duck’s. The truth is that
these dietary prohibitions served to make a _differentia_, to disunite
man, to pit race against race and to feed the priest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account