Watson Refuted: Being an Answer to the Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters to the Bishop Of Llandaff — John Shaqi
Watson Refuted: Being an Answer to the Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters to the Bishop Of LlandaffFrancis, Samuel W. (Samuel Ward)
Religion
Watson Refuted: Being an Answer to the Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters to the Bishop Of Llandaff
Francis, Samuel W. (Samuel Ward)
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809. Age of reason; Rationalism; Watson, Richard, 1737-1816. Apology for the Bible
Thirdly. The similarity of the mysteries of the Jews to those of the
Babylonians, is too glaring not to let us see the origin of Genesis in
particular. The creation in six days is a perfect copy of the Gahans,
or Gahan-bars, of Zoroaster; the particulars of each day's work are
literally the same. The serpent was famous among the Babylonians. The
mythological deluge of Ogyges and Xissuthrus, are symbols of changes
arising on earth, as they imagined, from the revolutions of the heavenly
bodies. These, a little ornamented by the historical narration of
Deucalion's inundation related by Berosus, is the pattern of Noah's
flood; the ark of Osiris and emblematical dove and raven were Egyptian
hieroglyphics. The man and the woman in Paradise is a mere copy of
Zoroaster's first pair. The original sin is Pandora's box. The Talmud of
Jerusalem says expressly that the Jews borrowed the names of the angels,
and even of their months, from the Babylonians. The Elohim, or Gods,
(not God), are said in Genesis to have created the world. It was not
Jehovah, but the genii or gods that are in the Hebrew called makers of
the world. And these are the very genii, who according to Sanchoniatho,
were by Mercury excited against Saturn.
Fourthly. We ask, in what language was the Pentateuch written, if it
really was the work of Moses? It is known that Hebrew is a dialect of
the Phenician, and that the Jews spoke Egyptian for a very long time
before they adopted the language of the people among whom they dwelt. In
Psalm lxxxi. we learn that the Jews were surprised to hear the language
of the people beyond the Bed Sea. If, therefore, Moses, or any person of
that age, is the author of the Pentateuch, it is evident that the
Hebrew books are mere translations. What degree of credit does a nation
deserve, who have been able to take for originals books that were in the
face of them translations? Is it right to persecute men, as priests have
done while they had power, for refusing to give credit to this tissue of
contradictory and absurd fables?
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