The Talmud and Bible Believers

The supreme hatred of Talmudic Judaism is reserved for and directed against the hated "adherers to the text" of Scripture who are, thus, accused of spurning the words of the Pharisee "Sages," as enshrined in the Babylonian Talmud.

These "adherers" to the Bible are classified as the primary enemies of Judaism.  They are all "idolators," "heathen," "goy." They rank not only as animals ‑ like the rest of the non‑Jewish human race, but as the lowest and most despised form of life. The Talmud frequently refers to Bible adherents scathingly as "Samaritans" and "Cutheans," phraseology similarly used to excoriate Christians.

The Sadducees were the first of these enemies. They were the constant opponents of the Pharisees and their imported Babylonian paganism, misrepresented by the Pharisees as the Tradition of the Elders, the "Oral Law" ostensibly transmitted privately to Moses and on down, superseding anything written in the Bible.

In the six years of civil war between the Pharisees and Alexander Jannaeus, King and High Priest of Jerusalem, 50,000 were killed on both sides before this Sadducean ruler succumbed, and his widow Salome turned affairs over to the Pharisees in 79 B.C. Her brother, Simon ben Shetah, had been waiting for such an opportunity. The continued civil war resulted in the sons of Alexander Jannaeus, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, in 63 B.C., going hat in hand to Pompey, Caesar's Roman General in Syria, asking him to invade Palestine and slaughter their respective opponents. This is how Rome happened to be in power when Christ was born. It was only after Christ's Ascension did the Pharisees triumph.

Other enemies have been the Samaritans, whom Our Lord seemed to favor. Some of whom had been brought in from Cutha and other far places in the World Assyrian Empire, to take the place of the ten Israel tribes deported in 721 B.C. They had opposed the return from Babylon in 536 B.C. of the Pharisee‑run Jews.

Each year a handful of Samaritans, a remnant of the Israelites, celebrate Passover on the site of their former temple at Mt. Gerizim, an event contemptuously referred to by American Jewish writers.

The Karaites arose in the 8th century in Babylonia under Anan to plague the Pharisee top element by scorning the Talmud and holding up the Bible as the supreme authority. A molten stream of hatred, therefore, was turned on them. With true Talmudic "Brotherhood" and "tolerance," Anan was expelled from Babylonia, and founded the Karaite sect in Jerusalem. Later, when the few remaining thousands of Karaites were favored by the Czar of Russia, although classed as "untouchables" by Talmudists, the latter offered to join the Karaites to get immunity from Czarist displeasure ‑ but the Karaites burned them down as hypocrites.

The supreme curses the Karaites have shared with Christians are due to the adherence of the Karaites to the Bible, instead of the "sages," or the Jewish Talmud. They are likened to the Sadducees and Samaritain Israelites in this.

                     The Opposition of The Karaites

"The Pharisees had been victorious over the Sadducees and the other sects opposed to the Oral Law, but had not annihilated them entirely; since only because these latter could not withstand them, they kept silence and were discontented in their hearts. As the Talmud gained strength and became more sever in its decrees against the Sadducees and Samaritans, so that in the end the Kuthim [Samaritans] were declared as idolaters in all respects, then their indignation burned and awaited a favorable time for revenge.

In the time of the dominance of the Gaonim, who carried out the Talmud in practice, the measure became full, and Anan, the nephew of the Gaon at Sura, when he was not elected as Gaon, for the reason of his liberal ideas and his opposition to the Talmud, established the Karaite sect.

Those who hold that the Karaites were a new sect founded by Anan (760 C.E.), are mistaken, for a small sect under the name of Karaites, or adherents of the Text, had existed already in the days of the Talmud, where they are mentioned in many places, as 'adherents of the Text,' or once 'the Karaites add' (Pesachim, 117a in text; in our edition, Vol. V., p. 145)

Doubtless the remainder of the Sadducees assumed this name, having lost political influence since they had been vanquished, and the word 'Sadducees' being hated by the people.' (Hormisdas Chapter VII) Now we will stop for a moment to see who the Karaite sect was. There is no doubt that there existed a sect by this name in the days of the Talmudists, for they are mentioned several times in the Talmud under the name 'Adherers to the Scripture,' and in one place it is plainly stated 'the Karaites added' (Pesachim, p. 117; our edition, p. 246, see footnote 3)

Neither is there any doubt that they were not favored by the Talmudists, as we find in many places in the Talmud remarks reflecting on them, as 'They who occupy themselves with the study of Scripture are not to be blamed, but, on the other hand, not to be praised,' (Baba Metzia, 79) and in Hagiga, it states plainly; Rabb said: 'If a man goes out from the study of the Mishna to read the verses of the Bible, this man can have no more peace.'

And there is no doubt that many similar remarks found in the Talmud have reference to this sect. But we can not, with exactness, fix the time when and to what extent this sect openly declared against the teachings of the Talmudists. However, we do not hesitate for one moment to state that during all that time this sect has brooded an intense hatred to every Jew who has not followed them, although at times they were compelled to conceal their hatred.

One penetrating glance into the history of the Samaritans and into that of the Karaites, one penetrating glance into the literature of the former and into that of the latter, the curses pronounced by both of those sects against the followers of the Rabbanism; the beliefs and principles common to the religion of both (although differing slightly ceremonially), will suffice to induce one to agree with us that the Karaites, whose sect was established in the days of Anan, and a few of whom are living in our own time, have not only borrowed from the Samaritans [Israelites] and that even up to date they have changed slightly only in their outward appearance and in name, but not intrinsically." (History of the Talmud, Appendix B))

                         Talmudic Anti-Christianity

The ultimate object of hatred in Talmudic Judaism is Christ, and the targets of Talmudic hatred are not just

non‑Jews,

     "the people who are like an ass ‑ slaves who are considered the property of the master.' (Talmud, Kethuboth 111a) Of these non‑Jews, the Christians are most insanely hated and loathed because their doctrines are the opposite of every Talmudic doctrine. They rank not just as animals, like the rest of non‑Talmudic humanity, but almost as vermin, to be eradicated. Language in the Talmud is virtually exhausted to find foul and hated names for Christians.

     Min (plural Minim) is used throughout the Talmud as a term to designate Christians. In the 'Shemoneh Esreh,' or 18 Benedictions, the word has been changed from time to time as wary non‑Jews become aware of its meaning.

     The history of the petition against enemies may serve to illustrate the development of the several component parts of the 'Tefillah' in keeping with provocations and changed conditions. The verses of Ecclesiasticus make it certain that the Syrian oppressors were the first against whom this outcry of the poor, oppressed victims of tyranny was directed. As the Syrians were aided by the apostates, the 'zedim,' these were also embraced in the imprecatory appeal. The prayer was in fact designated even in later days as a petition to humiliate the arrogant. A century later the Sadducees furnished the type, hence it came to be designated as the 'birkat ha‑Zeddukim' (but 'Zaddukim' may in this connection be merely a euphemism for 'minim;' (Yer. Ber. iv. 3; Ber. 28b)

     Under Gamaliel II, it was invoked against heretics, traitors, and traducers: the 'minim' and the 'posh'im,' or, as Maimonides reads, the Apikoresim. (see also his commentary on Sanh. x. 1, and 'Yad,' Teshubah, iii. 6‑8) The later were the freethinkers: the former, the Christians. These had brought much trouble into the camp of faithful Jews; they disputed with the Rabbis; even r. Gamaliel had often to controvert them; they involved the Jews in difficulties with the Roman government; they denounced the Jews to the authorities...the original composition of the prayer was die to Gamaliel), his purpose being to test those suspected of being minim...The above account seems to suggest that this admitted at once and without some opposition. The prayer has undergone since the days of Gamaliel many textual changes, as the variety of versions extant evidences. 'Kol Bo' give the number of the words contained therein as thirty‑two, which agrees with none of the extant recenducers of Judaism and the Jews a ready weapon of attack...

     The prayer is not inspired, however, by hatred toward non‑Jews; nevertheless, in order to obviate hostile misconstructions, that text was modified. Originally the opening words were 'Lazedim ula‑minim,' and the conclusion had 'maknia' zedim. The changes of the beginning into 'La‑meshummadim' is old. Another emendation was 'We‑la‑posh'im, which readily gave way to the colorless 'We‑la‑malshinim' (in the German ritual among others). For 'minim' was substituted the expression 'all doers of iniquity;' but the Sephardim retained 'minim,' while Maimonides has 'Epicureans.' In the older versions the continuation is: 'and all the enemies of Thy people,' or, in Amram Gaon's 'Siddur,' 'all our enemies;' but this is modified in the German and Roman into 'and they all,' while Maimonides omits the clause altogether.'...' Note that 'Zaddukim' was substituted. 'Epicureans' was substituted by Maimonides (a Talmudic pillar)."

Reference was also made to uncensored Talmud editions of Berechoth 28b, Sanhedrin 27a; Horayoth 11a and Gittin 45a. The Berechoth statement reads: "The benediction relating to the minim was instituted in Jabneh [Palestine] against anyone leaving out the benediction against the minim, "because we suspect him of being min." The Talmud Gittin 45b reference states that "a scroll of the Law which has been written by a min should be burnt." Distilled hate is the theme.

The Horayoth 11a citation from the Talmud (page 79 of the Soncino edition) is another tirade against those who rank below "common people" ‑ the minim [Christian]. It cites those who drink wine dedicated to an idol, referring to the Holy Communion. Christ is always the "idol" denounced by the Talmud, while real idolatry in regard to spirits, planets, child burning to Molech, Baal filth, are permitted in Judaism.

Present day Jews keep up a continual propaganda that burning anti‑Christian, immoral or subversive books is the depth of bigotry, bias and intolerance. But the teaching in Sabbath 111a of the Talmud is even cited in the Jewish Encyclopedia (under Gentiles), which holds that Christian books should be burned "without regard to the name of God appearing therein."

Characteristic of charging as a crime against others what Talmudists themselves are doing, a Sanhedrin passage denounces Christ as a sorcerer. It was to refute this Talmudic teaching of hate against Christ, that Martin Luther wrote his "Shemhamphoras" on the charge that Christ did His miracles by sorcery, using the Tetragrammaton, which, in some Talmud passages. He is said to have stolen and hidden in His flesh! Christ was amazingly correct in designating the Talmudic Pharisees as children of the Father of Lies. (John 8:44).

                        Christianity Calls From Hell

Christianity is likened in the Talmud to one of two daughters of a horse‑leech calling from hell, "Bring, bring!" One is the government; "Which constantly imposes fresh taxes and duties" and the other "minuth" [Christianity] "Which continually lures the unwary to its erroneous teaching," a Biblical verse is then misused as a curse "applied to those converted to idolatry" (Christianity). Then another says the voice of hell is calling to bring these two "daughters," "who cry and call in this world," back to hell.

                     Incest Preferable to Christianity

The Talmud speaks of a woman who confessed that her younger son was the offspring of her older son and that incest was her lightest sin, and wanted to die in peace but could not, for if incest was her lightest sin "it may be assumed that she had also adopted minuth [Christianity]...that is why she did not die...Since she said of her guilt that it is one of the lightest, it may be assumed that she was guilty of idolatry [Christianity] also." A tale follows about a Rabbi who visited every harlot in the world, crossing seven rivers to get at the last one. He is allowed to die in peace because he had not committed the unforgivable minuth (Christianity). (Talmud, Abodah Zarah 17a)

                   Death From Snakebite Preferable

The Talmud says that Rabbi Ishmael (sage) has a nephew who is bitten by a snake and wants to let Jacob, a Disciple of Jesus, heal him, but dies in the middle of the sentence. The Rabbi thereupon exclaims: "Happy art thou Ben Dama for thou wert pure in body and thy soul likewise left thee in purity..." His joy was because, of course, it was preferable to die of snakebite than to be healed by a Christian. (Talmud, Abodah Zarah 27b)

                    Jesus and The High Priest's Privy

The Talmud tale is told that, because of talking to a Christian Disciple of Jesus, a Rabbi is suspected of being pro‑Christian, which makes him deeply ashamed. He tells the lie that Jesus taught that the hire of a harlot may be used to build a privy for the high priest. (Abodah Zarah 16b‑17a) This last pleased the Rabbi very much, he says.

This filthy and false story to defame Christ is used in a typical Jewish lie by Rabbi Louis Finklestein in his publication "The Pharisees" (see pages xv‑xvi of the Foreword). Any epithets directed at Pharisaism by Christians in the early centuries Finklestein ascribes to conflict between Christians and "their former comrades, who continued loyal to unaltered Pharisaism.

Nevertheless, the Pharisee and the Christian remained sufficiently close to regard one another with respect." Then the above Rabbi Eliezer lie is used as a compliment!: "Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, one of the most orthodox of the sages, offered high praise to an interpretation of Scripture given by an early Christian." (Aboda Zara 17a) This is the self‑same libel on Christ!

                        More Lies to Fool Christians

At the time the Jewish Encyclopedia was published in 1905 there was no English translation of the Talmud with identifying folio numbers. The first, by Rodkinson in 1903, was not only abridged, but also without folio numbers. Only with the relatively recent Soncino English translation of the Talmud do we have folio numbers and overt, unmistakable references which require no argument or interpretation for non‑Jews. However, in 1905, lies concerning the Talmud were quite safe from prying non‑Jewish eyes. The 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia states: "During the first century of Christianity the Rabbis lived on friendly terms with the minim" (Christians). Anyone familiar with the liquid fire turned on Pharisaism by Christ in the New Testament is not fooled by this. However, to buttress this lie, the above false privy tale attributed to Jesus is told as though it indicated friendliness. (Abodah Zarah 16b‑17a)

Concerning the above anti‑Christian "snakebite" story from the Talmud, the Encyclopedia then states: "Ben Dama, a nephew of Rabbi Ishmael, having been bitten by a snake, allowed himself to be cured by means of an exorcism utter by the min Jacob, a Christian." Does not this one series of circumstances once again illustrate how amazingly correct Christ was in designating the Pharisees as children of the Father of Lies?

              Jesus Knew The Oral Tradition (Talmud)

Rodkinson (M. Levi Frumkin), who compiled the first English translation of the Babylonian Talmud, asks, in the section on the History of the Talmud: "Is the literature that Jesus was familiar with in His early years yet in existence in the world? Is it possible for us to get at it?...To such inquiries the learned class of Jewish rabbis answer by holding up the Talmud...The Talmud then, is the written form of that which, in the time of Jesus, was called the Traditions of the Elders, and to which He makes frequent allusions."

               The Talmud and Mary, Mother of Jesus

She is  called "Miriam, a dresser of women's hair." She "committed adultery." (Sanhedrin 67a) "She played the harlot with carpenters." (Sanhedrin 106a‑106b) All rabbinical sources ascribe to Jesus, "illegitimate birth...the seducer was a soldier by the name of Panthera [also called Pandira, and Stada]." "Pappus [husband of Mary] has nothing to do with the story of Jesus, and was only connected with it because his wife happened to be called "Miriam" [Mary] and was known to be an adulteress." All the Life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu) "editions contain a similar story of a dispute which Jesus carried on with the scribes who on the ground of that dispute declared him to be a bastard. (Jewish Encyclopedia, under "Jesus").

                               Christ As "Balaam"

Under the name of "Balaam" the most lewid Talmud passages concerning Jesus appear. Proof that Jesus is called "Balaam" is found in the Jewish Encyclopedia (under "Balaam") which, after enumerating His alleged loathsome qualities, states: "Hence...the pseudonym 'Balaam' given to Jesus in Sanhedrin 106b and Gittin 57a." In the same article, we are told that the Talmud likens the Gospel Christians and Christ to Baal sex‑worshippers because of whose abominations 24,000 Israelites died of plague at the time of Balaam. (Numbers 25:1‑9)

Because Balaam had been asked to curse the Israelites but instead did not and foretold the coming Messiah, (Numbers 24:17) the flimsy pretext is made that Jesus was a curse like Balaam. "He is pictured as blind of one eye and lame in one foot and his disciples distinguished by three morally corrupt qualities..." He is called "one that ruined a people," and His churches are likened to nudist Baal worship. And, "this hostility against his memory finds its climax in the dictum that whenever one discovers a feature of wickedness or disgrace in his life, one should preach about it." (Sanhedrin 106b)

Turning to Sanhedrin 106a‑106b of the Talmud, mentioned above, we see the likening of Jesus to the supposed act of Balaam in causing 24,000 Israelites to go whoring and die of plague (some 1450 years before Christ was born). He is due for his "reward" for this infamy. His mother, Mary, is "She who...played the harlot with carpenters...They subjected him to four deaths, stoning, burning, decapitation and strangulation...he was thirty‑three or thirty‑four years old." Another says: "I...have seen Balaam's Chronicle in which it stated, 'Balaam the lame was thirty years old when Phinehas the Robber killed him." The footnote explains: "Balaam is frequently used in the Talmud as a type for Jesus." The mother of Jesus is identified, the four deaths enumerated, "and...all the Balaam passages are anti‑Christian in tendency, Balaam being used as an alias for Jesus. Phinehas the Robber is thus taken to represent Pontius Pilate, and the Chronicle of Balaam probably to denote a Gospel."

Verifying the Jewish Encyclopedia account above on Balaam being Jesus in the Talmud we see: "in the case of the wicked Balaam: whatever you find written about him, lecture upon it to his disadvantage."

Christian churches are likened to tents for Baal prostitution, with old women outside, young ones inside to get customers drunk and disrobe and worship the "idol," Jesus, in Baal manner, by prostitution. (Sanhedrin 106a) Hanging a calumny on the brief mention in the Bible that Balaam was slain, (Numbers 32:8) the above passage in Sanhedrin is cited by the Jewish Encyclopedia thus: "In the process of killing Balaam, (Numbers 31:8) all four legal methods of execution ‑ stoning, burning, decapitating, and strangling ‑ were employed." (Sanhadrin 1c) "He met his death at the age of thirty‑three (Sanhadrin 1c) and it is stated that he had no portion in the world to come." (Sanhadrin x. 2:90a)

Sanhedrin 90a of the Talmud, denying "Balaam" a place in the world to come. There it is stated that the resurrection being denied by Sadducees and Samaritans, "It was to oppose these that the doctrine was emphatically asserted in the second of the Eighteen Benedictions." The "sin" of pronouncing the Tetragrammation is cited against Christ and Christians.

The curse of Christians, as those who pronounce the "Name" as "spelt" (Tetragrammaton) and read "uncanonical books," begins with a Mishnah. Vague meanderings to throw off a possible Christian reader appear in the footnotes with a hint that the "uncanonical books" may mean this or that, but: "There are indications, however, that something more is meant."

But the footnote to "uncanonical books," still being discussed 68 pages later (Sanhedrin 100a‑100b) overtly reveals that the reference is to the New Testament, and that the word "Sadducees" is used to indicate "Gentiles [non‑Jews]."

                              The 18 Benedictions

The "religious" Orthodox Jew recited the "Eighteen Benedictions," or "Shemoneh Esreh," three times, week days, four times on holidays and Sabbaths, the 7th and 12th of which curse the Christians and non‑Jews to hell and perdition. Thus, the "good Orthodox Jew" gives us Christians 6 cursings on ordinary days, 8 on "specials." Note all the varieties of double talk which have been utilized down the centuries to keep the truth about the "Shemoneh Esreh" from the non‑Jews, who might not be friendly to those who recite this "Brotherhood" litany religiously 6 to 8 times daily! Note: "In order to obviate hostile misconstructions, the text was modified..." and one change after another to fool the non‑Jew is enumerated. (Jewish Encyclopedia, under Shemoneh 'Esreh)

The 12th benediction, the "Birkat ha‑Minim" (curse against Christians, etc.) "furnished the traducers of Judaism and the Jews a ready weapon of attack." This "Petition Against Enemies" (non‑Jews) is called an "imprecatory appeal." "Imprecatory" means, of course, "invoking evil, a curse" (Webster). It is further stated by the cautious Jewish Encyclopedia, "The seventh benediction...looks like a duplication and is superfluous." The Jewish Encyclopedia also cites a recommendation by the "sages" for daily recitation of the "benediction:" "Blessed be thou who hast not made me a goy." (Jewish Encyclopedia, under Gentiles, p. 617)

In the Talmud, the Christian is also planted in Hell for eternity under a deluge of "boiling excrement" if opposing "Judaism:" "Whoever mocks the words of the Sages is punished with boiling hot excrement." (Talmud, Gittin 57a) On this same page, where the ordinary Christian gets this eternal fate, Christ is similarly punished forever in hell with "boiling semen."

                  The Talmud - Five Deaths To Jesus

Jesus, as stated in both the Talmud and Jewish Encyclopedia, gets "four legal methods of execution" and is Crucified as well, as a blasphemer of Pharisee Judaism. Jesus stoned, then "hanged" or crucified, (Sanhedrin 43a‑45b; Sanhedrin 67a) where under another pony name (Ben Stada) Jesus is identified as "Jesus of Nazareth." As to Judas, we are told (Under the Trial and death of Jesus) that: "when Judas found he could not touch Jesus in any way, in aerial battle, he defiled him" (the "privy concept," once again, which runs through the Talmud). Jesus' apostles all killed. (Sanhedrin 43a-b) Their names are decoded by the Jewish Encyclopedia. Jesus crucified as a "blasphemer," (Sanhedrin 46a) Jewish Encyclopedia. Jesus burned (Sanhedrin 52a); manner of burning, (Yebamoth 6b) verified by Jewish Encyclopedia under "Balaam."

Christ is "lowered into dung up to his armpits then a hard cloth was placed within a soft one, wound round his neck and the two loose ends pulled in opposite directions forcing him to open his mouth. A wick was then lit, and thrown into his mouth so that it descended into his body and burnt his bowels...his mouth was forced open with pinchers against his wishes. (Sanhedrin 52a) And: "The death penalty of 'burning' was executed by pouring molten lead through the condemned man's mouth into his body, burning his internal organs." (Hebamoth 12b)

Jesus strangled: "He was lowered into dung up to his armpits then a hard cloth was placed within a soft one, wound round his neck, and the two ends pulled in opposite directions until he was dead." (Talmud, Sanhedrin 52a) This is repeated (Sanhedrin 106b) and verified by the Jewish Encyclopedia page 467. Jesus in hell where His punishment is "boiling in hot semen." (Talmud, Gittin 57a) The subject is identified as Jesus in a footnote, also in the Jewish Encyclopedia under "Balaam."

Christians in hell (in the above passage) are punished by "boiling hot excrement" which is the punishment for all who mock "at the words of the sages" (i.e. the Talmud). Jesus "committed bestiality," "corrupted the people," is "turned into hell." (Talmud, Sanhedrin 105a) Jesus "limped on one foot" and "was blind in one eye," "He practiced enchantment by means of his membrum," "He committed bestiality with his ass," he was a fool who "did not even know his beast's mind." (Talmud, Sanhedrin 105a‑105b)

The ridiculous and foul misuse of Judges 5:27 about Sisera's dying convulsions meaning sexual intercourse is here applied to Jesus, with a footnote "explanation" of Judges 5:27: "This is taken to mean sexual intercourse..." Jesus attempts to seduce women, is excommunicated by a rabbi and then worships a brick, was a seducer of Israel, and practiced magic, (Talmud, Sanhedrin 107b) also the Jewish Encyclopedia. Jesus is cited in the index of the Sanhedrin portion of the Talmud, "chief repository of the criminal law of the Talmud," which shows the page numbers where He is denounced. Jesus' resurrection is cursed: "Woe unto him who maketh himself alive by the name of God." (Talmud, Sanhedrin 106a) The trial of Jesus: "It was by the action of the priests that Jesus was sent before Pontius Pilate."

The Sanhedrin priests "had most reason to be offended with Jesus' action in cleansing the Temple," the probable place of His trial, according to the Talmud. His cry: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?...was in all its implications itselfa disproof of the exaggerated claims made for him. The very form of his punishment would disprove these claims in Jewish eyes. No Messiah that Jews could recognize could suffer such a death; for 'He that is hanged is accursed of God.' (Deuteronomy 21:23) This refers to an 'evil son' and Talmudist Rashi adds 'an insult to God.' "The foregoing is from the Jewish Encyclopedia under "Jesus." Other foul charges against Jesus and His mother, His being a "bastard," and the like, follow. (Jewish Encyclopedia, under Jesus)

                           Judaism And Paganism

The commonest statements of all Jewish authorities attribute many customs and doctrines of "Judaism" to Persian, Babylonian, Assyrian sources. The leading paganisms of all the centuries have been gathered up and treasured by Pharisaic Talmudism. The long stay of Pythagoras in Babylon, his number and letter magic; the transmigration of souls out and back into the "En Sof;" procreation being the hub and center of the universe, a man's first duty being to get souls out of "guf" and if this is impossible to keep on copulating in honor of the procreative powers; the selflessness of the universe; the multitude of spirits in charge of all functions; Sun‑worship; veneration of the Moon; man as a spark of the divine capable of pushing the universe with his own illuminated inflated "knowing" self (Lucifer means "light‑bearer"), all forms of the old Nature religions of paganism, seeking power through abracadabra, invocations, fasting and ecstasies to attract the spirits of the unseen world. It is all as old as the Old Testament, and as current.

So‑called "Judaism" is nothing but Babylonian Talmudic Pharisaism, which at base is crass paganism, pantheistic atheism, a conglomeration of all the forms of paganism concocted through the centuries. New descriptions concocted for this very old satanism, such as "immanence" (Spinoza); "emanation" (Talmudic Cabala); "dialectical materialism" merely dress up old pagan concepts.

                                       Babylon

What the Cross means to Christianity, "Babylon the Great" means to the cult of Judaistic Pharasiasm. Babylon was the "Vatican," center, and spiritual homeland of Pharasaic Babylonian Talmudism, as Chief Rabbi Hertz has put it, from 586 B.C. to 1040 A.D., when the last of the Talmud "academies" moved out into Europe, Asia and Africa from Babylonia Foreword, by Chief Rabbi Dr. J.H. Hertz. The "glory" of Babylon is referred in the Talmud, Rodkinson Introduction.

And from Babylon, to Africa, Europe and all over the world, Pharisaism and its Traditions (Talmud) went, so that the Jew today repeats Pharisaic arguments when he studies Talmud, says Rabbi Louis Finklestein, formerly of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and was one of Jewry's world top Jews. (The Pharisees, The Jewish Publication Society of America)

From Talmud "academies" in Babylon, at Sura, Hehardea, Nisibis, Pumbeditha, Talmudic ideas and decisions went out and were accepted by the "Jews" of the world. The Jewish Encyclopedia, considering "the general influence of Babylonia upon European Judaism," states: "The West received both the written and the oral Law from Babylonia," and even after the close of the Talmudic "glories" in Babylon (1040 A.D.):

"Babylonia, however, still continued to be regarded with reverence by the Jews in all parts...in the Ninth Century...Jews of Abyssinia placed 'the sages of Babylon 'first in their prayers...a similar prayer, although it has lost its application, is extant today in many congregations. Rabbi Paltiel of Cairo contributed one thousand gold pieces to the schools of Babylonia...in accordance...with a custom prevalent in all places where Jews dwelt...Toward the end of the Twelfth Century...Benjamin of Tudela...relates that the 'nasi' of Damascus received his ordination from the academic head of Babylonia so that this country was still predominant in the minds of the Jews of the Moslem world." (Jewish Encyclopedia, under - Babylonia)

Nasi (prince), is a head of the Sanhedrin, or ruler of temporal affairs of Jewry; the Ab Beth Din is the religious head and joint ruler with the Nasi in Pharisaism. There were five of these "pairs" before 70 A.D. A Babylonian Talmud passage on Babylon, exalts it as the "centre of religion and learning." (Kethuboth 111a) The complete devotion to Babylon of the Pharisee Jewish religion may be seen by reading the Jewish Encyclopedia.

                   Babylonian Influence On Judaism

"Punctuation and accentuation were begun in Babylonia; so also the piyyut, rime, and meter. Even philosophy had its origin here; for the frequently mentioned but little‑known David ha‑Babli or Al‑Mukammez, who lived before Saadia, is the oldest known Jewish philosopher. The greatest if not also the earliest payyetan, Eleazar Kalir, of the eighty century, was apparently a Babylonian. It is true indeed, adds Luzzatto, that heresy is also a Babylonian product; for, in addition to the Karaites, Hiwi al‑Balki, Saadia's opponent was a Persian‑in a broader sense a Babylonian. [Talmudic usage survived for a long time of calling all Western Jews ('ma'arbaye') 'Palestinians' and all Eastern Jews ('Madinbaye') 'Babylonians.'] One peculiarity of the Babylonians, however, made no headway among the Jews of other lands: this was the system of supralincal punctuation (see Pinsker, 'Einleitung in das Babylonisch‑Hebraische Punctuationssystem'), called the Babylonian or Assyrian, and said to have been invented by the Karaite, R. Aha of Irak (See Margoliouth, in 'Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archaeology,' 1898, p. 190.

To Babylonian literary activity, in addition to the Babylonian Talmud, must be ascribed possibly the Targum Onkelos, together with some Midrashic works ('Rabbot'). 'Halakot Gedolot,' and the well‑known works bearing the names of the geonim Aha of Shabba, Amram, Saadia, Sherira, Hal, Hophni, and others. Babylonian learning, always great from Rab's time, expressed itself in independent works only toward the close of the period, and then disappeared altogether.

Babylonia, however, still continued to be regarded with reverence by the Jews in all parts. Eldad, who in the ninth century traveled extensively from Africa, notes that the Jews of Abyssinia placed 'the sages of Babylon' first in their prayers for their brethren of the diaspora (Zemah Gson, in Epstein, 'Eldad ha‑Dani,' p. 8); and a similar prayer, although it has quite lost its application, is extant today in many congregations. R. Paltiel of Cairo contributed one thousand gold pieces to the schools of Babylonia ('Medieval Jewish Chron.' ii. 128), in accordance, no doubt, with a custom prevalent in all places where Jews dwelt. In 1139 Abraham ibn Ezra was in Bagdad, and the exhilarate had possibly been restored at that time. (see his commentary on Zechariah 12:7)

Toward the end of the twelfth century, both Benjamin of Tudeia and Pethahiah of Regensburg gave a description of Babylon; Judah al‑Harizi's journey was somewhat later. Benjamin found seven thousand Jews in Mosui on the Tigris opposite ancient Nineveh, and at their head was R. Zakkai, of Davidic descent; he found also R. Joseph Burj al‑Fulk, court astronomer of the Seijunk sultarn Saifeddin. Pethahiah ('Travels,' London, 1856) found there two 'nesi'im' (princes) of the house of David. Other inhabitants paid a gold dinar to the government, but the Jews paid on‑half to the government and the other to the two princes. In another passage Pethahiah says that every Jew in Babylonia lived in peace. Passing through many places which counted two thousand, ten thousand and even fifteen thousand Jewish inhabitants, Benjamin reached Bagdad, the residence of the calif. At this time the calif (Emir al‑Mumermin) was considered only as the spiritual head of the state; the functions of government proper were exercised by the Seljunk princes. 'The calif,' says Benjamin, 'is kindly disposed toward Israel, and reads and speaks our holy tongue.' In Bagdad there resided about a thousand Jews, and there were ten colleges, which he enumerates, all under a president of their own."

Contrast the so‑called Palestinian Talmud, which, says Chief Rabbi J.H. Hertz, one of "Jewry's 120 world leading Jews," was for many centuries almost forgotten by Jewry. Its legal decisions were at no time deemed to possess validity, if opposed by the Babylonian Talmud.

                             Babylon The Symbol

Babylon is the very symbol of moral filth in the whole Old Testament. but those who call themselves "People of the Book" exalt it in every way. Pharisaism today lives by the Babylonian calendar, keeps the Babylonian festivals and Fast of Tammuz, and enshrines its anti‑Biblical immorality, including sodomy and burning children to Molech, necromancy, and other execrable practices.

The Talmud cites as the word of "the Masters" that, "All

countries are like dough [inferior] toward the Land of Israel, and the Land of Israel is like dough toward Babylon." (Kethuboth 111a) Continuing: "We have a tradition that Babel [Babylon] will not witness the suffering that will precede the coming of the Messiah." A footnote states that a more correct reading of this is that the "suffering" frequent in modern Christian books is fictitious. "These are the throes of mother Zion which is in labor to bring forth the Messiah‑without metaphor the Jewish people." (Kethuboth 111a)

             Talmudic Jewish Months Are Babylonian

The lunar Babylonian calendar was adopted by the Judaites from the time of the deportation to Babylon of the Judah Kingdom (586 B.C.). Pharisaic Talmudists to this day have adopted the Babylonian calendar and the pagan names of the months, with rites to match. These month names coincide roughly with the signs of the Zodiac as follows: Nisan (Babylonian month) corresponds with Aries; Iyyar with Taurus; Siwan with Gemini; Tammuz with Cancer; Ab with Leo; Elul with Virgo; Tishri with Libra; Heshwan with Scorpio; Kislev with Sagitarius; Tebet with Capricorn; Shebat with Aquarius; Adar with Pisces.

                           Judaism ‑ Tree Worship

Tree worship, one of the oldest forms of paganism, is based on the belief that trees are inhabited by spirits of fecundity. And is another of the regular Babylonian Talmudic synagogue festivals, known today, as "New Year for Trees." Its Talmudic name is "Hamishshah‑'asar bi‑shevat," under which title it is listed in the Babylonian, or synagogue calendar, given in the American Jewish Year Books. It fell, for example, on the 15th of Shevat, 1964, which in our calendar was January 29th.

In his work, The Golden Bough ‑ A Study in Magic and Religion, Sir James George Frazer devotes much space, even in the abridged edition (MacMillan, 1951), to "Tree Worship," which he traces through different countries as a pagan observance. He says of Buddhist monks who, believing that trees have souls,

"will not break a branch of a tree 'as they will not break the arm of an innocent person.' These monks are Buddhists. But Buddhist animism is not a philosophical theory. It is simply a common savage dogma incorporated in the system of an historical religion. To suppose, with Benfrey and others, that the theories of animism and transmigration current among the rude peoples of Asia are derived from Buddhism, is to reverse the facts."

What Frazer writes about the animistic, transmigration doctrines of Buddhism applies with equal force to so‑called "Judaism," which is poles apart from basic Bible beliefs.

Looking upon the individual tree as a soul, or merely the abode of a soul, says Frazer, marks the line between animism, the simplest nature‑worship, and Polytheism, or tribute to many gods. He says:

"When a tree comes to be viewed, no longer as the body of the Tree‑Spirit, but simply as its abode which it can quit at pleasure, an important advance has been made in religious thought. Animism is passing into Polytheism. In other words, instead of regarding each tree as a living and conscious being, man now sees in it merely a lifeless, inert mass, tenanted for a longer or shorter time by a supernatural being...[who] enjoys a certain right of possession or lordship over the trees, and, ceasing to be a tree‑soul, becomes a forest 'god.'" (The Golden Bough ‑ A Study in Magic and Religion, Sir James George Frazer, pp. 129, 135)

The Christian is usually perplexed at Biblical excoriations against trees. The fact was that owing to the fertility myth, individual and mass harlotry was carried on under trees, and these were planted for that purpose in groves. Two kings of Judah, Hezekiah and Josiah, were commended because they "cut down the groves." (2 Kings 18:4; 23:14)

God promised Moses He would bless the people he was leading into Palestine providing they drove out the pagan abominators, the Canaanites, saying: "Take heed lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare...But ye shall destroy their altars...and cut down their groves. (Exodus 34:12‑13) Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods...under every green tree. And ye shall...burn their groves with fire." (Deuteronomy 12:2‑3; 7:5)

Read the varying, equivocating, hedging variety of reasons given by the Jewish authorities as to why some of their holidays are celebrated. "What goes on here?" is the natural reaction to all this evasiveness, or to direct contradictions by top sources.

Under "New Year for Trees" in the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943) we are told that Shammai set this holiday for the 1st of Shebat (around February) and Hillel, the most popular of these two 1st Century Pharisees set it for the 15th of Shebat ‑ and, of course, Hillel won. The "eating of many species of fruits" is cited for this occasion and: "No special liturgy...is prescribed for the day." Under "New Year for Trees" in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905, however, we read that "it is celebrated by eating various kinds of fruits and by a special liturgy arranged for the Day."

Take your choice. Then this older source sites that "the custom was to plant a cedar‑tree for every new‑born male and a cypress‑tree for every female. When a marriage was about to take place the trees were cut down and used as posts for the nuptial canopy." (Gittin 57b) The Gittin 57b passage of the Jewish Talmud referred to as the source of trees in connection with weddings, follows the Talmud 57a passage about Christians being in hell under boiling "excrement," and every foul blasphemy of Christ. This followed by a "dainty" tale about David: "He went into a privy and a snake came, and he dropped his gut from fright and died." (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943), p. 252 Soncino edition) Then, Gittin 57b: "It was the custom when a boy was born to plant a cedar tree and when a girl was born to plant a pine tree, and when they married, the tree was cut down and a canopy made of the branches."

The article in the Jewish Encyclopedia tells how the cabalists, when they settled in Palestine in the 16th Century, instituted the custom of eating fruits on that day, instead of planting trees. Zohar and Talmud readings about fruits are also mentioned, and customs in various countries such as Russia described. There "the children are granted absence from school and join in eating the fruits."

That the trees around the Canaanite altars to the procreative powers and gods were not only symbols of fertility but were used as whoring places in their honor, is cited throughout the Old Testament. Each reform King cut down the "groves" which greatly denounced as a heathen abomination. Deuteronomy 12:2‑3; 16:21; 2 Kings 18:4; 23:6, 15, are typical. Jeremiah, thundering at the Judaites, accuses them thus: under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. (Jeremiah 2:20)

Ezekiel railed against the Jews:

"Again the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem [the home of the Jews in Christ's time] to know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou [Jerusalem and the Jews] wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou was exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them, And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou has even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord God. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and they daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That THOU HAS TSLAIN MY CHILDREN [Israelites], AND DELIVERED THEM TO CAUSE THEM TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE FOR THEM?...[see the rest of Chapter 16 then Chapter 23 and 24]." (Ezekiel 16:1‑21)

The posts, or "asherah," marked "the high places [Jewish synagogues ‑ see the works of Lightfoot]" for sex degeneracy, in the name of "fruitfulness." "Asherah" is defined as: "a wooden post or tree‑trunk with the branches lopped off...a seemingly indispensable part of the sanctuary in the ancient Canaanitish cult...a symbol of the fruitfulness of nature." (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia)

"Tree Worship," says the same source, is the belief "that trees are inhabited by spirits who exert good or evil influences and must therefore be revered...such a belief existed among the ancient Canaanites and...was adopted by the invading Israelites along with other elements of their religion and culture."

Referring to the "Sacred character of these trees:" "This corresponds to...the Asherah...and to what the prophets tell us of the worship 'upon every high hill and under every leafy tree'...The Deuteronomic law prohibited the Asherah (Deut. 16:21) and ordered the destruction of those already in existence. (Deuteronomy 12:3) But tree‑worship was a custom difficult to eradicate and it has survived in many parts of the world down to the present day." This is followed by the typical cover‑up that it disappeared after the Babylonian Exile "among the Israelites."

But the older source Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905 states: "The extent of its worship [the tree] is indicated also by the denunciations of the Prophets. A favorite phrase of theirs in describing idolatrous [sex] practices as 'upon every hill and under every green tree' (Deuteronomy 12:1; Jeremiah 1:20) ...As has been pointed out, the Prophets were unable completely to suppress tree‑worship, which has survived in Palestine through all religious changes to the present day."

                                    Trees Today

Since the Babylonian Talmudists acquired Palestine in 1948, formal tree planting has gone on at a feverish pace. Groves are being planted in "honor" of various people. It has been reported by Jewish sources that President Kennedy has a grove of 50,000 trees in his honor, around Jerusalem. "Tree Planting to be a Holiday Event" headed the report:

"Jewish people the world over will celebrate the New Year for Trees. Tu B'Shvat...As has been the custom for many years, the Jewish National Fund will observe the holiday by planting trees in Israel." (California Jewish Press, 1/31/58)

In view of the billions upon billions of dollars of taxpayers' money given to "Israel," it is suitable that a forest in honor of the United States Government, "American Freedom Forest," was proposed:

"It is to serve as a living monument to the friendship and close cooperation existing between the citizens and governments of the United States and Israel." (B'nai B'rith Messenger 7/8/60)

Now that the antichrist Talmudists possess Palestine, as predicted by Scripture "Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord: unto to us [Jews] is this land given in possession." (Ezekiel 11:14) There promises to be, if the reports are any indication, more groves in Palestine than Moses and the Prophets ever ordered to be cut down or burned.

                        The "Sacred" Star of David

Non‑Jews have been drenched with propaganda that the six‑pointed "Star of David" is a sacred symbol of Jewry, dating from David and Solomon, in Biblical times, and signifying the pure "monotheism" of the Jewish religion. In actuality, the six‑pointed star, called "David's Shield," or "Mogen David," was only adopted as a Jewish device in 1873, by the American Jewish Publication Society, it not even being mentioned in rabbinical literature.

The Jewish Encyclopedia states:

"Magen Dawid ('David's shield'): The hexagram formed by the combination of two equilateral triangles; used as the symbol of Judaism. It is placed upon synagogues, sacred vessels, and the like, and was adopted as a device by the American Jewish Publication Society in 1873, the Zionist Congress of Basel, hence by 'Die Welt (Vienna), the official organ of Zionism, and by other bodies. The hebra kaddisha of the Jewish community of Johannesburg South Africa, calls itself 'Hebra Kaddisha zum Rothen Magen David,' following the designation of the 'red cross' societies...

It is noteworthy, moreover, that the shield of David is not mentioned in rabbinical literature. The 'Magen Dawid,' therefore, probably did not originate within Rabbinism, the official and dominated Judaism for more than 2,000 years. Nevertheless, a David's shield has recently been noted on a Jewish tombstone at Tarentum, in Southern Italy, which may date as early as the third century of the common era...

The earliest Jewish literary source which mentions it, the 'Eshkol ha‑Kofer' of the Karaite Judah Hadassi (middle of the 12th century), says, in ch. 242: 'Seven names of angels precede the mezuzah: Michael, Gabriel, etc....

Tetragrammation protect thee! And likewise the sign called 'David's shield' is placed beside the name of each angel.' It was therefore, at this time a sign on amulets.

In the magic papyri of antiquity, pentagrams, together with stars and other signs, are frequently found on amulets bearing the Jewish names of God, 'Sabaoth,' 'Adonia,' 'Eloai,' and used to guard against fever and other diseases...Curiously enough, only the pentacle appears, not the hexagram. In the great magic papyrus at Paris and London there are twenty‑two signs side by side, and a circle with twelve signs, but neither a pentacle nor a hexagram...although there is a triangle, perhaps in place of the latter. In the many illustrations of amulets given by Budge in his 'Egyptian Magic' (London, 1899) not a single pentacle or hexagram appears. The syncretism of Hellenistic, Jewish, and Coptic influences did not therefore, originate the symbol. It is probable that it was the Cabala that derived the symbol from the Templars...The Cabala, in fact, makes use of this sign, arranging the Ten Sefirot, or spheres, in it and placing it on amulets...

The pentagram, called Solomon's seal, is also used as a talisman, and Henry thinks that the Hindus derived it FROM THE SEMITES [just more proof that the Jews know they are not Semites!]...although the name by no means proves the Jewish or Semitic origin of the sign. The Hindus likewise employed the hexagram as a means of protection, and as such it is mentioned in the earliest source, quoted above.

In the synagogues, perhaps, it took the place of the mezuzah, and the name 'shield of David' may have been given it in virtue of its protective powers. The hexagram may have been employed originally also as an architectural ornament on synagogues, as it is, for example, on the cathedrals of Brandenburg and Stendal, and on the Marktkirche at Hanover.

A pentacle in this form, R, is found on the ancient synagogue at Tell Hum. Charles IV, prescribed for the Jews of Prague, in 1854, a red flag with both David's shield and Solomon's seal while the red flag with which the Jews met King Matthias of Hungary in the fifteenth century showed two pentacles with two golden stars...The pentacle, therefore, may also have been used among the Jews. It occurs in a manuscript as early as the year 1073..." (Jewish Encyclopedia, pp. 251‑252)

In Jewish Magic and Superstition A Study in Folk Religion, Joshua Trachtenbert, Behrman's Jewish Book House NY, 1939. "In addition to the written inscription amulets were also often adorned with magical figures. Among these may be singled out the pentagram (popularly identified as the 'Seal of Solomon') and the hexagram.

The hexagram in particular has acquired a special place in Jewish affections, and is regarded as the symbol of Judaism, under the name 'Shield of David.' So strong has the connection between this seal and the Jewish people become that it seems today to have behind it centuries of traditional usage.

IT MAY SURPIRSE SOME CHRISTIANS, TO LEARN THAT ONLY IN THE PAST HUNDRED YEARS OF SO HAS THE MAGEN DAVID (David's Shield) BEEN WIDELY ACCEPTED AND USED BY JEWS AS SYMBOLIC OF THEIR FAITH, IN THE SENSE THAT THE CROSS AND CRESCENT ARE OF CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM. THE HEXAGRAM, IN FACT, HAS NO DIRECT CONNECTION WITH JUDAISM.

Both these figures are the common property of humankind. The Pythagoreans attributed great mystical significance to them; they played a mystical and magical rôle in Peru, Egypt, China, and Japan; they are to be found in Hellenistic magical papyri; the Hindus used the hexagram and pentagram as potent talismans; they occur often in Arabic amulets, and in medieval Christian magical texts; in Germany, where it is called the Drudenfuss, the pentagram may still be seen inscribed on stable‑doors and on beds and cradles as a protection against enchantments. Their magical virtues were known in Jewish circles at an early time; they are to be found often in early post‑Talmudic incantations, and occur fairly often in medieval amulets and mezuzot." (Jewish Magic and Superstition A Study in Folk Religion, Joshua Trachtenbert, Behrman's Jewish Book House NY, 1939, pp. 140‑141)

                         Jewish Amulets and Magic

The turning‑point between ancient and medieval magic is symbolized by the Testament of Solomon which belongs to the same world of Hellenistic syncretism as the Greek magical papyri and also the same period (A.D. 100‑400), and yet is utterly different. Working with a common stock of traditions and beliefs, though rather more imbued with Judaism, this curious receptacle of current magical lord already showed that bias towards demonology which was to become of such paramount importance to the Jews in medieval times.

In fact, dressed up as an autobiography, it is nothing more nor less than a demonology itself; and although in its own way it is a good deal livelier and more attractive than later specimens of that art, the strange beauty, the magic, which haunts the papyri has vanished like smoke. Based partly on the Old Testament tale of Solomon and later Jewish folk‑lore about the wise king, it tells in the first person the story of how he Temple was built by the aid of demons subdued for that purpose by the arch‑magician of legend.

His power, his glory, and renown; the visit from the Queen from the South, explicitly called a witch; his final downfall into idolatry and consequent loss of power as well as other episodes and anecdotes form the narrative thread on to which, like curiously carved beads, the demons are strung one after the other, to fashion a magical rosary.

The action is set in motion by the vampire‑devil Ornias, battening on the blood of Solomon's favorite slave who was employed on the building of the Temple. The king prayed to God and was answered by the gift of a magic ring brought by Raphael. The stone was engraved with the pentalpha, and the ring had the power to subdue all demons.

Beginning with Ornias, Solomon therefore summoned one after another of the fiends, constrained them to tell him their names, their powers and the particular angel who could thwart their evil designs. Each spirit in turn confessed along these lines, was set to work at the Temple or else imprisoned and thus rendered harmless.

The fifteen greater spirits interrogated derive from Persian, Hellenistic Greek, Jewish sources; they give fairly interesting and detailed accounts of their natures and functions; their personal appearance, hideous, their form and composite, is also described; some of them prophesy future events: the downfall of Solomon, the destruction of the Temple, the coming of Christ; indeed the accuracy of some forecasts fulfilled in his own day was the reason (said Solomon) why he was now communicating the secret wisdom he had learned for the benefit of mankind.

Another transparent piece of propaganda for the Testament was the plausible explanation, given by Ornias, as to how the demons came by their foreknowledge. Nothing could be simpler. They merely mounted up into the heavens and listened to the sentences pronounced on the souls of men; but, having no foothold in those altitudes, they would often fall like lightning to the earth, appearing to men to be shooting stars.

Foremost among them all is the ar‑fiend Beelzeboul, of New Testament fame:

"And I summoned again to stand before me Beelzeboul, the prince of demons, and I sat him down on a raised seat of honour, and said to him: 'Why art thou alone, prince of the demons?' And he said to me: 'Because I alone ma left of the angels of heaven that came down. For I was first angel in the first heaven, being entitled Beelzeboul. And now I control all those who are bound in Tartarus...' I Solomon said unto him: 'Beelzeboul, what is thy employment?' And he answered me: 'I destroy kings. I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. And the chosen servants of God, priests and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies, and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and murder, and wars and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world...' I said to him: 'Tell me by what angel thou art frustrated.' And he answered: 'by the holy and precious name of the Almighty God, called by the Hebrews by a row of number, of which the sum is 644, and among the Greeks it is Emmanuel. And if one of the Romans adjure me by the great name of the power Eleêth, I disappear at once.' I Solomon was astounded when I heard this; and I ordered him to saw up Theban marbles. And when he began to saw the marbles, the other demons cried out with a loud voice, howling because of their king Beelzeboul. But I Solomon questioned him, saying: 'If thou wouldst gain a respite, discourse to me about the things in heaven.' And Beelzeboul said: 'Hear, O king, if thou burn gum, and incense, and bulbs of the sea, with nard and saffron, and light seven lamps in an earthquake, thou wilt firmly fix thy house.  And if, being pure, thou light them at dawn in the sun alight, then wilt thou see the heavenly dragons, how they wind themselves along and drag the chariot of the sun.' And I Solomon, having heard this, rebuked him, and said: 'silence for the present, and continue to saw marbles as i commanded thee.'" (The Testament of Solomon, F.C.  Conybeare, Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol xi, London, 1899, pp. 21ff)

This is the nearest 'Solomon' ever came to the mystic visions of the papyri, considering such knowledge, to judge by his reception of it, to be in some unspecified way unlawful. Actually the Testament was much more interested in identifying the agents of evil and their angelic adversaries than in cosmic dreams. The fundamental optimism of magic is very much to the fore in this text. For Ornias, an incubus of a most sinister sort; Oneskelis, a succubus; the proud and disdainful Asmodeus, who prevents marriages and incites to adultery; Tephras, who brings darkness and sets fire to fields; the seven wicked sisters of the Pleiades; the envious Akephalos; the fearful Obizuth, all head and no limbs, who strangles and slaughters babes and children; all these terrible evil‑doers can be brought to naught by pronouncing the angelic or divine name which confounds them and puts them to flight.

It is the same story with the thirty‑six decani, spirits of the Zodiac, who govern the different parts of the human body, or rather who attack them. For these are the demons of disease, diagnosed in the Testament, which uses the terms of Hippocrates and Galen for the sicknesses, but cites angels' names as antidotes, occasionally though rarely adding something in the nature of magical materia medica:

"The third said: 'I am called Arôtosael. I do harm to eyes, and grivously injure them. Only let me hear the ords, 'uriel, imprison Aratosael' [sic], at once I retreat.'...The sixth said: 'I am called Sphendonaêl. I cause tumours of the parotid gland, and inflammation of the tonsils, and tetanic recurvation. If I hear, 'Sabrael, imprison Sphendonaêl, at once I retreat.'...And the ninth said: ' I am called Kurtaêl. I send colics in the bowels. I induce pains. If I hear the words, 'Iaôth, imprison Kurtêl,' I at once retreat.'...The twelfth said: 'I am called Saphathoraêl, and I inspire partisanship in men, and delight in causing them to stumble. If any one will write on paper these names of spirits of the North, Boul, ruler of the spirits of the West. But in view of his later fame, Asiel, one of the magical angelic names in the papyri, deserves a special mention. He is here classed among the fiends, and certainly amongst the most rewarding ones, for he discovers stolen goods and detects thieves; but more important still, he reveals the exact position of treasures hidden underground. He bears a strong resemblance to the metallurgical gods of the Chaldeans, and in view of his subsequent history, that he was a lineal descendant of the midnight sun of the Akkadian cosmos.

Whether this particular surmise is correct or not, Assyrian and Babylonian elements clearly survived in the demons of disease described in the Testament. The Apocrypha, notably Enoch, was responsible for much of the demonology and angelology; the Talmud contributed the story of Ornias and the arts used by the demons to know the future. Egypto‑Hellenic magic supplied information about Onoskelis, Akephalos Daimon, Enepsigos or Hecate and Kunopegos or Poseidon. Beelzeboul and Leontophoron, the demon of Gadara, derived from Jewish mythology.

Gnosticism [originated with the Jews] supplied the term aeon, although probably this was merely borrowed from the papyria; there are also affiliations with Arabic folk‑lore, to judge by similarities with the Koran and the Arabian Nights; unless we are to suppose that these two later works borrowed from the Testament, which, though possible, seems unlikely. But even without postulating Arabic elements, the eclecticism and syncretism of this magical treatise bear striking witness to one of the leading characteristics of the Art; its main importance, however, was the evolution of demonological lore into a recognizable Book of the Spirits, describing their functions and powers and the means to master them.

Such a list was by no means yet a hierarchy, even though Beelzebouls was named as prince, and the decani obviously ranked lower than Ornias and his consorts. It was chiefly owing to the speculations of the neo Platonists that an infernal hierarchy gradually came into being. Porphyry (A.D. 233‑304), who divided spirits simply into good and bad, nevertheless contributed the idea of a special category of fraudulent spirits, in order to meet the difficulty inherent in the assumption that great spirits can be constrained to appear by the will of man.

Iamblichus (died A.D. 333), to whom this difficulty was non‑existent, maintained in The Mysteries that such fraudulent spirits could only ape their betters if there had been some error in the rites; and he developed a complete descending hiearchy of the spirits, in which the good and the evil, the latter not totally black, were classified according to their greater or lesser degree of power and distance from human beings.

In fact Plotinus' notion of the world‑soul streaming down towards the earth and animating the universe was translated by Iamblichus into concrete terms. His pneumatology included the gods, radiating a beneficent light, stable and calm; archangels, powerful and mild; deamons, terrible and stormy, bringing movement and disorder; angels, graceful, charming and calm, only slightly stirred by motion; the princes of the elements, overwhelming in their calm stability; the princes of matter, repulsive, often dangerous, surrounded by tumult, but the dispensers of worldly wealth and powers; the heroes, milder than the demons and yielding to movement; and finally the souls, the weakest and the most easily swayed into motion.

The princes of the elements and the princes of matter resemble in some sort the seven planetary gods and their corresponding demons of the Akkadian cosmos. Iamblichus despite his lofty language was drawn more strongly towards magic than towards mysticism and was more intent on bringing gods and deamons down to us than on rising into the sphere of the gods; he was also interested in communicating with evil spirits as well as with good ones.

Proclus (A.D. 412‑84) concentrated on the elemental aspect introduced by Iamblichus, and divided the daimons into five classes, ruling over fire, air, water, earth and those housing undergound. Psellus, who died in 1106 A.D., adopted this classification, and added the category of Lucifugum, or Fly‑the‑light. Trithem (1462‑1516) in his Liber Octo Quaestionum characterized these spirits in a very vivid way.

The fire‑spirits, dwelling in the upper regions until the Day of Judgment, have no commerce of any kind with men; the air‑spirits, grim and violent, hate human beings and raise storms; the earth‑spirits inhabit woods and groves; some of them are quite friendly to men, but others are the reverse; the water‑spirits are full of wrath and passions; they generally manifest in a female form; the subterranean spirits are the most calicious of all. They attack miners and those digging for treasure; they provoke earthquakes; they are known to have lured men underground; they seize and guard buried treasures; they feign to be the souls of the dead. The Fly‑the‑lights finally are '...a sort wandering in darkness, a mysterious kind of demon, dark through and through, malicious, restless, stormy.' (Liber Octo Quaestionum, J. Tritheim, Oppenheim, 1575; I. iii. verso)

Paracelsus (1493‑1541) in his fascinating monograph, De nymphs, sylphis, pygmeis et salamandris, which was permeated through and through by Germanic folk‑lore, called the elemental spirits 'the flower of the elements,' and denied their possession of a soul.

But this idea, of which Grimmelshausen and later Fontaine made poetical capital in two diametrically opposite ways, was naturally not one which could fruitfully be used by magic, whether black or white. Running parallel with such quasi‑philosophical reflection was the ritual development of the infernal hiearchy initiated in the Testament of Solomon.

There are several allusions to such compilations in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and they were always attributed to Solomon. Tritheim mentioned a Liber Officiorum on the lines of the Testament, including four emperors, many kings, dukes, marquises and counts.

Wierus published under the title Pseudomonarchia Daemonum a cataogue of sixty‑nine devils with their offices and functions. Although the names are dissimilar to those of Recension C of the Testament, they include the kings of the east, south, north and west (Amaymon, Gerson, Zymymar, Goap) and follow the general pattern of that list.

Scot reprinted Wierus in his Discouerie of Witchcraft in 1584; and the French grimoire‑writers nearly all have similar lists. A manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (late fifteenth or early sixteenth century), contains a Livre des Esprits, including among the forty‑two demons Orient, king of the east, Paymon of the west (the latter figures in Pseudomonarchia Daemonum in another capacity), Amoymon of the south, and Cham of the north. A manuscript in the British Museum called the Lemegeton or Lesser Key of Solomon has an infernal hierarchy of seventy‑two demons, published by Waite in his Book of Black Magic, which tallies very closely indeed with Pseudomonarchia Daemonum. One way and another therefore the Liber Spirituum of medieval and modern magic connects closely with the Testament of Solomon."

                    The Jewish Cabala or Kabbalah

The existence of a spirit world, of evil spirits, is mentioned throughout the Bible. Christ drove out possessing spirits. There is one hard and fast rule taught on the subject, however: namely, to leave them alone, do no invoking or communicating with them. It is clear that spirit elements could deceive the finite powers of human beings. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is the First Commandment. "And that you shall do no bowing to, or serving them," is the Second Commandment. (Exodus 20:3‑5)

Whereas the Bible represents God as the Supreme Intelligence, Creator and Ruler, the pagan and atheist Jewish concept is pantheism. In other words, there is a great nature essence, out of which individual lives percolate blindly without direction. "Pan" (nature) "theism" (godism) holds that the sum of nature is god. Man becomes the all powerful Luciferian "god."

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943), as to the "Cabala," states: "Although Palestine was the birthplace of Jewish mysticism, the land where the Cabala was conceived, it was in Babylonia that it attained its greatest importance." It cites "the mystic speculations of the Talmud and the system of the Cabala, originating in the one and reaching its completion in the other." The Jewish Cabala is a library of literature, all on magic, spiritism, and based on sheer panthesim. "Aaron ben Samuel is credited with bringing the mysterious doctrine from Babylonia to Italy about the middle of the Ninth Century, thence it spread to almost all the Christian countries of Europe." (Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 616)

Cabala, also spelled Kabbalah, means "tradition," and it is the tradition of the paganisms of Babylon, Egypt, and the pagan philosophers, enshrined in the Jewish religion.

           Cabala, or Cabbala, or Kabala, or Kabbalah

CABAL: (Heb. Qabbalah, cabala). 1. a secret scheme; an intrigue; 2. a secret combination of a few persons; usually evil: v.i. [p.t. and p.p. caballed (‑bald'). p. pr. caballing], to join others secretly in effect some design. Syn., n. faction, conspiracy, coalition, gang.

CABALA (kabd‑ld), n. [Heb. qabbalah. reception: ally]. 1. the abstruse and mystical system of doctrine sacred Hebrew writings; 2. any occult or mystic philosophy.

Also, cabbala; kabala; kabbala. The received or traditional lore, esoteric mystical system of Judaic philosophy that developed at the beginning of the Christian era and reached a peak during the late Middle Ages. The Cabala, originally an oral tradition [just as the Talmud], was based on studies of the Scriptures for occult references to God, the universe, and the creation.

The Sepher Yetzirah ('Book of Creation'), a work on cosmology, was ascribed to the Patriarch Abraham (q.v.) but was probably written between the 3rd and 6th centuries A.D. The most important cabalistic work, the Zohar ('Brightness'; as in Dan. 12:3), was compiled by the Spanish scholar Moses de Leon (fl. 13th cent.) who ascribed it to Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai (fl 2nd cent.). Important contributions to cabalistic doctrine were also made by Rabbi Saadia ben Joseph. (The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943), 892‑942)

The fundamental concept of cabalistic teaching is that all emanates from God. Creation, in the common acceptance of the term, is not recognized, nor is eternal matter. All nature is the self‑development of the Deity. God as the absolute Being is also called Adam Kadmon, 'The First or Ideal Man.' The chief cabalistic writers flourished between the 13th and 16th centuries in Europe and after 1492 in what is now Zefat, Israel. The most eminent were the Spanish scholar Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (1195?‑1270), also known as Ramban, and the Palestinian scholar Isaac ben Solomon Luria (1534‑72). The writings of Luria Formed a basis for the Theology of the Pious Jews of the Hasidim (q.v.), a sect founded in 18th‑century Poland. The most prominent Christian cabalists were the 15th‑century Italian philosopher and theologian Pico della Mirandola (see Pico Della Mirandola) and the 15th‑century. German humanist Johann Reuchlin (q.v.), both of whom found a concept of the Trinity (q.v.) in the Cabala." (The Winston Simplified Dictionary, College Edition, p. 132 and Funk & Waggnals New Encyclopedia, Vol. 4)

One will never understand the Jews or their mindset until they understand the Cabala or Kabbalah or Qabbalah, etc. The Religious Philosophy of the Jews. This is an occult philosophy and science intended for those "who say they are Jews and are not" (Revelation 2:9 and 3:9) to dominate God's domain. They intend to reduce all but their own "Illuminati" or Enlightened Ones, to animal status. One will only understand that if God directs your attention to documented truths. Without the knowledge of God you will not have knowledge of God's enemies.

First seek God and He will direct your path and open the scriptures that cannot be understood without the knowledge of true Judaism, the Kabbalah!, which is an occult philosophy. This is because Webster's defines "OCCULT: 1. not revealed [although Jewish Gnosticism and the Talmud are considered 'revealed tradition (not based on fact)'] Secret 1. Abstruse, Mysterious [as in Freemasonry and Druidism] 3. not able to be seen or detected: concealed; 4. of or relating to supernatural agencies, their effects, and knowledge [gnosis ‑ Greek for knowledge ‑ the root word for Gnosticism].' Basically all of these forms are "Sun Worship" and SUN is a symbol for the "SELF." This "occult" is a Death Cult. Because of their fear of Almighty God who can, and will, inflict death on them, they use the Sun as a symbol of dying at night and rising anew each dawn. It is from this philosophy we have the "doctrine" of the rapture.

From the King James Bible: But if ye shall at all turn from following me...but go and serve other gods, and worship them: Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them...and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land...and they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God...therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil. (Excerpts from 1 Kings 9:6‑9) But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition [this is the "son of perdition" of 2 Thessalonians 2:3‑4]. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:9‑10) therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah [The Jews] that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. (2 Kings 21:12) Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. (1 Kings 22:23)

                          A Rosicrucian Crucifixion

The solar crucifixion is an outstanding example of the astronomical knowledge possessed by the so‑called prehistoric world. In Herschel's ground‑plan of the universe in human form, Writes Albert Ross Parsons, 'our solar system is located at the heart of the Divine Man of the skies. Hence, the catastrophe in our solar system, by which the ecliptic was sundered from the celestial equator, was a rupture or piercing of the heart of the Divine Man. The ecliptic and equator no longer coinciding, they formed a cross upon which the Divine Man was transfixed in space. This idea was familiar to the Hindus and to Plato. Hence arose the prehistoric Christianity, the religion of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, of the Book of Revelation.' (New Light from the Great Pyramid)

Ignoring the story of the crucifixion in its literal sense, the [Jewish] Gnostics considered only its cosmic import. In Rosicrucian mysticism, the Christ Spirit is said to have established a direct link with the earth through the blood which poured from the wounds in the hands, feet, and side of Jesus. Being the ancient symbol of the secret doctrine, the cross represents to the initiated that divine institution which, releasing the heavenly man from his animal part, launches the spiritual nature into the sphere of Reality.

Therefore the cross may be said to be the emblem of philosophic death, and the Mysteries cannot achieve their end until they have caused each of their neophy to pass victoriously through the cycle of suffering, death, and resurrection. The entire procedure is concealed in the symbolism of the grape. As one author has perceived, the agony in the Garden of Gethscmane is analogousto the crushing of the grapes in the wine press. He who comprehends the mystery of the sacramental cup posses the key to human regeneration. Man, crucified, passes through death upon the symbol of life and attains to life upon the symbol of death. The break between the Self and the not‑self is thus complete and the spirit., emeraina from its chrysalis, leaves the empty shell behind as the token of its attainment. The agony of the Savior, consequently, is not the agony of death but the agony of birth. Only in him who has found his life by losing it is the mystery comprehensible." (The Secret Teachings of all Ages, p. 181) You will soon see even more Jewish blasphemies soon. As we present a short outline of their beliefs, the cries of denial, notwithstanding.

Insignia of the Order of the Illuminati (Enlightened) Is the Reverse of the U.S. Seal and Appears on U.S. $1.00 Notes

The insignia of the Order of the Illuminati [the unfinished pyramid, with the all seeing eye] was adopted by Weishaupt at the time he founded the Order, on May 1, 1776.  It is that event that is memorialized by the MDCCLXXVI at the base of the pyramid, and not the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, as the uninformed have supposed.

The significance of the design is as follows: the pyramid represents the conspiracy for destruction of the Catholic (Universal Christian) Church, and establishment of a "One World," or UN dictatorship, the "secret" of the Order; the eye radiating in all directions, is the "all‑spying eye" that symbolizes the terroristic, Gestapo‑like, espionage agency that Weishaupt set up under the name of "Insinuating Brethren," to guard the "secret" of the Order and to terrorize the populace into acceptance of its rule. This "Ogpu" had its first workout in the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, which it was instrumental in organizing. It is a source of amazement that the electorate tolerates the continuance of the use of this insignia as part of the Great Seal of the U.S.

"Annuit Coeptis" means "our enterprise (conspiracy) has been crowned with success." Below, "Novus Ordo Seclorum" explains the nature of the enterprise: and it means "a New Social Order," or "New Deal," or "New World Order." It should be noted that this insignia acquired Masonic significance only after the merger of that Order with the Order of Illuminati at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad, in 1782.

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (Roosevelt kinsman) and Thomas Jefferson, ardent Illuminst, proposed the above as the reverse of the seal, on the face of which was the eagle symbol, to Congress, which adopted it on June 10, 1782. On adoption of the Constitution, Congress decreed, by an Act of September 15, 1789, its retention as seal of the United States.

It is stated however, by the State Department in its latest publication on the subject (2860), that "the reverse had never been cut and used as a seal," and that only the observe bearing the eagle symbol has been used as official seal and coat of arms. It first was published on the left of the reverse of the dollar bills at the beginning of the New Deal, 1933 by order of [Jewish] President F.D. Roosevelt.

What is the meaning of the publication at the outset of the New Deal of this "Gestapo" symbol that had been so carefully suppressed up to that date that few Americans knew of its existence, other than as a Masonic symbol? It can only mean that with the advent of the New Deal the Illuminist‑Socialist‑Communist‑Zionist conspirators, followers of Professor Weishaupt [a Jew], regarded their efforts as beginning to be crowned with success.

In effect this seal proclaims to the One Worlders that the entire power of the U.S. Government is now controlled by the Illuminati's Agentur and is persuaded or forced to adopt policies which further the Secret Plans of the Conspirators to undermine and Destroy it together with the remaining Governments of the so-called "Free World." All existing religions [Except Judaism], etc., so that the Synagogue of Satan will be able to usurp the powers of the first world government to be established and then impose a Luciferian totalitarian dictatorship upon what remains of the Human Race. (Pawns in the Game, William Guy Carr, p. XIII)

                                  Zoroastrianism

Out of Persia was to come one of the highest and most philosophical conceptions of deity before the time of Christ. The Persians started with the same animistic and primitive tendencies as other peoples of their time, about 660 B.C. a man‑child [a Jew] was born in Media, a neighboring state, who was to bring forth a highly enlightened religion.

This was Zarathustra or Zoroaster. (We may well be tolerant of each other's creed; for in every fiath there are excellent moral precepts. Far in the South of Asia, Zoroaster taught this doctrine: 'On commencing a journey, the Faithful should turn his thoughts toward Ormuzd, and confess him, in the purity of his heart, to be King of the World; he should love him, do him nomage, and serve him. He must be upright and charitable, despise the pleasures of the body, and avoid pride and haughtiness, and vice in all its forms, and especially falsehood, one of the basest sins of which man can be guilty.

He must forget injuries and not avenge himself. He must honor the memory of his parents and relatives. At night, before retiring to sleep, he should regorously examine his conscience, and repent of the faults which weakness or ill-fortune had caused him to commit.' He was required to pray for strength to persevere in the Good, and to obtain forgiveness for his errors. It was his duty to confess his faults to a Magus, or a layman renowned for his virtues, or to the Sun.

Fasting and maceration were prohibited; and, on the contrary, it was his duty suitably to nourish the body and to maintain its vigor, that his sould might be strong to resist the Genius of Darkness; that he might more attentively read the Divine Word, and have more coursge to perform noble deeds...

The Deity of the early Hebrews talked to Adam and Eve in the garden of delight, as he walked in it in the cool of the day; he conversed with Kayin; he sat and ate with Abraham in his tent; that patriarch required a visible token, before he would believe in his positive promise; he permitted Abraham to expostulate with him, and to induce him to change his first determination in regard to Sodom; he wrestled with Jacob; he showed Moses his person, though not his face; he dictated the minutest police regulations and the dimensions of the tabernacle and its furnature, to the Israelites; he insisted on and delighted in sacrifices and burnt offerings; he was angry, jealous and revengeful, as well as wavering and irresolute; he allowed Moses to reason him out of his fixed resolution utterly to destroy his people; he commanded the performance of the most shocking and hideous acts of cruelty and barbarity. He hardened the heart of Pharaoh; he repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto the people of Nineveh; and he did it not, to the disgust and anger of Jonah (do you see how the Jews distort everything related in the Bible and lie about our Savior Jesus Christ?)

Such were the popular notions of the Deity; and either the priests had none better, or took little trouble to correct these notions; or the popular intellect was not enough enlarged to enable them to entertain any higher conceptions of the Almighty. But such were not the ideas of the intellectual and enlightened few among the Hebrews. It is certain that they possessed aknowledge of the true nature and attributes of God; as the same class of men did among the other nations - Zoroaster, Menu, Confucius, Socrates, and Plato (all Jews).

But their doctrines on this subject were esoteric; they did not communicate them to the people at large, but only to a favored few (the rabbis); and as they were communicated in Egypt and India, in Persia and Phoenicia, in Greece and Samothrace, in the greater mysteries, to the Initiates...

The Magi of Babylon were expounders of figurative writings, interpreters of nature, and of dreams, astronomers and divines; and from their influences arose among the Jews, after their rescue from captivity, a number of sects, and a new exposition, the mystical interpretation, withall its wild fancies and infinite caprices. The Aions of the Gnostics, the Ideas of Plato, the Angels of the Jews, and the Demons of the Greeks, all correspond to the Ferouers of Zoroaster. A great number of Jewish families remained permanently in their new country; and one of the most celebrated of their schools was at Babylon.

They were soon familiarized with the doctrine of Zoroaster, which itself was more ancient than Kuros. From the system of the Zend-Avesta they borrowed, and subsequently gave large development to, everything that could be reconciled with their own faith; and these additions to the old doctrine were soon spread, by the constant intercourse of commerce, into Syria and Palestine...

The doctrines of Zoroaster came originally from Bactria, an Indian Province of Persis. Naturally, therefore, it would include Hindu or Buddhist elements, as it did. The fundamental idea of Buddhism was, matter subjugating the intelligence,a nd intelligence freeing itself from that slavery. Perhaps something came to Gnosticism from China. 'Before the chaos which preceded the birth of Heaven and Earth,' says Lao-Tseu, 'a single Being existed, immense and silent, immovable and ever active; the mother of the Universe.

I know not its name: but I designate it by the word Rason. Man has his type and model in the Earth; Earth in Heaven; Heaven in Reason; and Reason in Itself." Here again are the Ferouers, the Ideas, the Aions; the Reason or Intelleigence, Silence, Word, and Wisdom of the Gnostics. The dominant system among the Jews after their captivity was that of the Pharoschim or Pharisees.

Whether their name was derived from that of the Parsees, or followers of Zoroaster, or from some other source, it is certain that they had borrowed much of their doctrine from the Persians. Like them they claimed to have the exclusive and mysterious knowledge, unknown to the mass. Like them they taught that a constant war was waged between the Empire of Good and that of Evil.

Like them they attributed the sins and fall of man to the demons and their chief; and like them they admitted a special protection of the righteious by inferior beings, agents of Jehovah. All their doctrines on these subjects were at bottom those of the Holy Books; but singularly developed; and the Orient was evidently the source from which those developments came...

All the philosophers and legislators that made Antiquity illustrious, were pupils of the initiation; and all the beneficent modifications in the religions of the different people instructed by them were owing to their institution and extension of the Mysteries. In the chaos of popular superstitions, those Mysteries alone kept man from lapsing into absolute brutishness.

Zoroaster and Confucius drew their doctrines from the Mysteries. Clemens of Alexandria, speaking of the Great Mysteries, says: "Here ends all instruction. Nature and all things are seen and known." Had moral truths alone been taught the Initiate, the Mysteries could never have deserved nor received the magnificent eulogiums of the most enlightened men of Antiquity, of Pindar, Plutarch, Isocrates, Diodorus, Plato, Euripides, Socrates, Aristophanes, Cicero, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and others; philosophers hostile to the Sacerdotal Spirit, or historians devoted to the investigation of Truth.

No: all the sciences were taught there; and those oral or written traditions briefly communicated, which reached back tot he first age of the world...There is another division of nature, which has in all ages struck all men, and which was not forgotten in the Mysteries; that of Light and Darkness, Day and Night, Good and Evil; which mingle with, and clash against, and pursue or are pursued by each other througout the Universe.

The Great Symbolic Egg distinctly remained the Initiates of this great division of the world. Plutarch, treating of the dogma of a Providence, and of that of the two principles of Light and Darkness, which he regarded as the basis of the Ancient Theology, of the Orgies and the Mysteries, as well among the Greeks as the Barbarians, a doctrine whose origin, according to him, is lost in the night of time, cites, in support his opinion, the famous Mystic Egg of the disciples of Zoroaster and the Initiates in the Mysteries of Mithras...

Zoroaster, like Moses, claimed to have conversed face to face, as man with man, with the Deity; and to have received from Him a system of pure worship, to be communicated only to the virtuous, and those who would devote themselves to the study of Philosophy. His fame spread over the world, and pupils came to himf rom every country. Even Pythagoras was his scholar...And yet Zoroaster added:

"Measure not the journeyings of the Sun, nor attempt to reduce them to rule; for he is carried by the eternal will of the Father, not for your sake. Do not endeavor to understand the impetuous course of the Moon; for she runs evermore under the impulse of necessity; and the progression of the Stars was not generated to serve any purpose of yours."

Ormuzd says to Zoroaster, in the Boundehesch:

"I am he who holds the Star-Spangled Heaven in ethereal space; who makes this sphere, which once was buried in darkness, a flood of light. Through me the Earth became a world firm and lasting; the earth on which walks the Lord of the World. I am he who makes the light of Sun, Moon, Stars pierce the clouds. I make the corn seed, which perishing in the ground sprouts anew...

I created man, whose eye is light, whose life is the breath of his nostrils. I placed within him life's unextinguishable power."...

Ahrim was by some Parsee sects considered older than Ormuzd, as darkness is older than light; he is imagined to have been unknown as a Malevolent Being in the early ages of the world, and the fall of man is attributed in the Boundehesch to an apostate worship of him, from which men were converted by a succession of prophets terminating with Zoroaster. Mithras is not only light, but intelligence; that luminary which, though born in obscurity, will not only dispel darkness but conquer death.

The warfare through which this consummation is to be reached, is mainly carried on through the instrumentality of the "Word," that "ever-living emanation of the Deity, by virtue of which the world exists," and of which the revealed formulas incessantly repeated in the liturgies of the Magi are but the expression. "What shall I do," cried Zoroaster, "O Ormunzd, steeped in brigness, in order to battle with Daroodj-Ahriman, father of the Evil Law; how shall I make men pure and holy?"

Ormuzd answered and said: "Invoke, O Soroaster, the pure law of the Servants of Ormuzd; invoke the Amschaspands who shed abundance throughout the seven Keshwars; invoke the Heaven, Zeruana-Akarana, the birds travailing on high, the swift wind, the Earth; invoke my Spirit, me who am Ahura-Mazda, the purest, strongest, wisest, best of beings; me who have the most majestic body, who through purity am Supreme, whose Soul is the Excellent Word; and ye, all people, invoke me as I have commanded Zoroaster."

Ahura-Mazda himself is the living Word; he is called "First born of all things, express image of the Eternal, very light of very light, the Creator, who by power of the Word which he never ceases to pronounce, made in 365 days the Heaven and the Earth."

The Word is said in the Yashna to have existed before all, and to be itself a Yazata, a personified objecty of prayer. It was revelaed in Serosch, in Homa, and again, under Gushtasp, was manifested in Zoroaster...Much of the primitive Truth was taught to Pythagoras by Zoroaster, who himself received it from the Indians. His disciples rejected the use of Temples, of Altars, and of Statues; and smiled at the folly of those nations who imagined that the Deity sprang from or had any affinity with human nature. The tops of the highest mountains were the places chosen for sacrifices.

Hymns and prayers were their principal worship. The Supreme God, who fills the wide circle of Heaven, was the object of Whom they were addressed. Such is the testimony of Herodotus. Light they considered not so much as an object of worship, as rather the most pure and lively emblem of, and first emanation from, the Eternal God; and thought that man required somehting visible or tangible to exalt his mind to that degree of adoration which is due to the Divine Being...

The Occult Science of the Ancient Magi was concealed under the shadows of the Ancient Mysteris: it is guessed at under the obscurities that cover the pretended crimes of the Templars; and it is found enveloped in enigmas that seem impenetrable, in the Rites of the Highest Masonry. Magism was the Science of Abraham and Orpheus, of Confucius and Zoroaster. It was the dogmas of this Science that were engraven on the tables of stone by Hanoch and Trismegistus. Moses purified and re-veiled them, for that is the meaning of the word reveal.

He covered them with a new veil, when he made of the Holy Kabalah the exclusive heritage of the people of Israel, and the inviolable Secret of its priests. The Mysteries of Thebes and Eleusis preserved among the nations some symbols of it, already altered, and the mysterious key whereof was lost among the instruments of an ever-growing superstition.

Jerusalem, the murderess of her prophets, and so often prostituted to the false gods of the Syrians and Babylonians, had at length in its turn lost the Holy Word, when a Prophet annoucned to the Magi by the consecrated Star of Initiation, came to rend asunder the worn veil of the old Temple, in order to give the Church a new tissue of legends and symbols, that still and ever conceals fromt he Profane, and ever preserves to the Elect the same truths. (Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, pp. 167, 170, 207, 256-258, 373, 403, 424, 611, 613, 617, 839)

He was, according to legend, a wonder‑child, born of an immaculate conception [He was merely another Jewish Messiah, which had been prophesied in the Scriptures], who attained salvation suddenly and preached a religion well suited to the needs of the people and the Iranian plateaus with their tough struggle for survival.

He taught that life was a struggle between the forces of Good and of Evil, the world serving as the battle‑ground on which there could be no neutrals. Each man must choose the side on which he would stand, and in making the choice he must bear in mind the judgment hereafter. There was no room for sentimentality. The choice was hard, and the work was hard as life itself No mercy could be shown the enemy, whether man, beast, or weed. Good works, including irrigation, sowing and reaping, rearing of domestic animals, all were admired and encouraged.

The spirit of good was Ahura Mazda, Lord of Wisdom, with his helper, Mithras, Light. The evil spirit was Aingra Mainyu, or Ahriman, the Lie Demon. The two great spirits had come together for the Creation, Ahura Mazda creating everything except moral and physical evil, which thing were established by Ahriman. Ahura Mazda had six leading attributes: the good mind, or love; the righteous order, or plan of grace; Khshathra, or divine noble government; Armaiti, or holy character, or piety; Haurvatat, or health of mind and body; and Immortality, or life perpetuated in a heaven of good thoughts, words, deeds. Ahura Mazda was supported by Mithras, Light, and hence the veneration of fire as a symbol and the retention of the fire priests. Ahriman gained assistance from the old idols and gods.

Man, as has been said, could not be neutral in the great struggle. The test was the uprightness of his life and the assistance his conduct gave against evil. The emphasis was upon his works. Thus did Zoroaster give for the first time in history an answer to the question, "Why is life?" He said, "To fight for the right." The Zoroastrian believed in a paradise and a hell. The pious Jews after death went to an immortality of holiness in thought, word, and deed ‑ not to a sensual heaven as found in many religions. The impious fell from the Judge's Bridge into an eternal hell of evil thoughts, words, and deeds, and of physical torment.

In the days of the end‑time all the dead would be restored by a Saviour born of the seed of Zoroaster and a virgin who was to conceive in a lake Impregnated with his Semen. The good and the evil would join in a great battle known as "The Affair," from which, after a period of doubt and darkness, Ahura Mazda would emerge victorious. Then all the hills and mountains would melt and pour over the earth in a great flood. Every wicked thing would perish as though scalded, but the righteous would wade through with laughter, as though through a bath of warm milk. The earth would then be a paradise with no mountains or deserts, no savages or wild beasts, where the just would live on forever with joy and gladness in their hearts.

Zoroastrianism was too noble and too advanced for its time. Zoroaster was spurned by his own people [Jews], the Medes, and took his beliefs to the Persians. Here he was not in his life time accepted either, but by 500 B.C. Zoroastrianism had become the leading faith of the Persians. His hymns and fragments of his teachings and sayings were gathered into a book which became the Persian Bible, the Avesta, or Zend‑Avesta. Zoroastrianism led to government in Persia more just than anywhere else in the ancient East [so the Jews say]. The emperors were given a sense of obligation, as witness this quotation from Darius, "Ahura Mazda brought me help because I was not wicked, nor was I a liar, nor was I a tyrant. I have ruled according to righteousness."

Zoroastrianism degenerated in the hands of later generations of Jews to a theological ritual. Mithras grew in importance, and cults devoted to him spread as far west as Rome, some relics of his rites being found even on the Seine. Elaborate purification rites became the vogue ‑ most notable being a purification by a bath from head to foot in cow urine. The dead were thought unholy, and tabu was placed on the touching of a corpse. To this day, where Zoroastrianism survives, bodies cannot be burned or buried, but are left exposed to scavenging vultures.

The most numerous sect of Zoroastrians existent today is the Parsees in India, numbering about eighty‑four thousand. They are descendants of Persian refugees who in the seventh and eighth centuries were permitted to settle in India on condition of laying down their arms, refraining from killing the sacred cow, and adopting a new mode of dress. The basic teachings of monotheism, monogamy, and holiness have never been lost, but have been overlaid by many of the ceremonies and customs of the neighboring Hindus, especially in the case of birth, marriage, death, and holy days. Woman has always been held in high esteem and great honor, this being remarkable in a country like India. Today Parsic women have complete equality of status with men, even in public assemblies.

The religion of the Parsees is a universal monotheism. It imposes love of God, love of truth, and charity in

all its connotations. All must strive to do some good. Their creed includes a belief in the existence of angels

to assist mankind; in the efficacy and necessity of prayer; in the immortality of the soul; in an afterlife of

rewards and punishments. It is a pure religion with no attempt at propitiation of evil forces. Their morality is

summarized in the words "holiness," "pure thought," "good word," and "good deed." The common virtues are extolled

and inculcated. Truth is especially exalted. In the end, man rests his pardon on the mercy of God and his reward

on His bounty.

Although the number of true Zoroastrians today is small, this belief has left its mark on Judaism and Islam,

and through these Mithraism (After the rise of Zoroastrianism; sometimes called the faith of Ormuzd or Mazdaism, Mithras, a Persian God of Light, took his place between Ormuzd and Ahirman or Pluto of the Persians; the eternal Light and the eternal Darkness, to aid, it is said, in the destruction of evil and administration of the world. He was the god of vegetation, the god of generation and increase, and was accepted in the official religion of Persia.

He was also regarded as mediator between humanity and the unknowable God, who reigned in the ether. His cult spread, with the Empire of Persia, throughout Asia Minor, and Babylon was an important center; it grew in strength following the conquests of Alexander. The beginning of its downfall was about 275 A.D., but it still survived in the fifth century.

It was modified in Asia by contact with the Chaldean star-worshippers, who identified Mithras with Shamash God of the Sun, and by the Greeks of Asia, who looked upon him as Helios. it was not until the end of the first century that it gained ground in Rome, where both its politics and philosophy helped its success. Hadrian, however, prohibited these Mysteries in Rome because of the cruel human sacrifices accompanying some of their rites, when future events were divined in the entrails. Nevertheless, they reappeared under Commodus, and spread even to Britain.

Mithraic legend, theology, and symbology have been reconstructed by Franz Cumont in his Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, 1896. The legend, as shown on these famous Mithraic reliefs, also described by Sainte-Croix, is briefly: Born of a rock, Mithras ate of the fruit of a fig tree and clothed himself with its leaves. The relief shows Mithras's adventures with the sacred bull, created by Ormuzd; he seized the animal by the horns, was carried about until, subduing it, he finally dragged it into a cavern, and by order of the Sun-God sacrificed it.

The central relief representes Mithras with flowing garments and Phrygian cap, slaying the sacred bull; the bull sacrificed to bring forth terrestrial life. The scorpion attacking its genitals was sent by Ahriman fromt he lower world to destroy the generative power, and so prevent fertility; the dog springing towards the wound in the bull's side was venerated by the Persians as Mithras's companion; the serpent is the symbol of the earth made fertile by drinking the blood of the sacrificial bull.

The raven who directs Mithras is the Herald of the Sun-God who ordered the sacrifice; various plants near the bull and heads of wheat symbolise the fruitful result. The torch-bearers represent one in three aspects: the sun at the vernal and autumn equinoxes and the summer solstice, the renewal of nature and its fecundity. The Mithraic Mysteies were celebrated at the winter solstice - 'The day of the Nativity of the Invincible.'

The cave or artificial grotto used in their initiations represented the Universe, that is, the seven planets, twelve signs of the Zodiac, four elements, etc., for the science of the Mysteries had intimate connection with astrology and physics; furhter, the mystic symbolic Egg represented their dualism of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Night and Day, negative and positive.

A text of St. Jerome and inscriptions preserve the knowledge of the seven degrees of initiation. The ladder of seven planets represents, they say, the seven stages by which man descended into matter and through which he must return to the ether and illumination. According to Celsus the order of return is: Saturn, Venus, Juipter, Mercury, Mars, Moon, Sun, thus differing from the cabalistic system, which is from Earth to Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Juipter, and Saturn. The Mithraic degrees were: (1) Raven, the servant of the Sun; (2) Occult or veiled; (3) Soldier, the warfare against evil in service of Mithras; (4) Lion, the element of fire; (5) Persian, clothed inAsiatic dress; (6) Heliodromus, courier of the Sun. Pater or father; Patres Sacrorum, directors of the cult.   

In the first three degrees they were servants only. In the first an oath of secrecy was taken, preceded by purification and fasts. In the Soldier degree, according to Tertullian, the myste was marked or branded on the forehead with a Tau. In the Lion and persian honey was applied to hands and tongue.

There was also a mystic communion of consecrated bread and water; later wine possibly replaced the soma used in similar rites of Mazdaism. In the higher degrees, among participants, the effects of drinking the sacred wine, the manipulation of the light in the crypt, the administration of the oath, and the repetition of sacred formule all contributed to induce a state of ecstatic exaltation.

Springett, in his Secret Sects of Syria, speaks of lustrations with fire, water, and honey, and after many tests ending with a fast of fifty days' continuance, spent in perpetual silence and solitude. "If the candidate escaped partial or complete insanity, and occurance of great frequency, and surmounted the trials of his fortitude, he was eligible for the superior degrees."

Yarker, in his Arcane Schools, tells us that in some of the Mithraic monuments Mithras appears with a torch in each hand, whilst a flaming sword issues out of his mouth; in others he has a man on eace side, one holding a flaming torch upwards, the other holding it reversed. The latter might represent their principles of Light and Darkness; the flaming sword is also a symbol among modern Rosicrucian and Cabalistic sects, where on the Cabalistic Tree of Life, Adam Kadmon, the Logos, is depicted with the flaming sword issuing out of his mouth; it is the astral light, which can slay or make alive, set in motion by a powerful will and a trained adept controlling it.

In these Mysteries, therefore, we again see the cult of nature and generation applied to the so-called regeneration of man, mental illumination throught he action of the astral light, which in many cases leads to illusion, fanaticism, and at times even madness. (The Trail of the Serpent, by Inquire Within, Miss Stoddard, pp. 16-19)), on Christianity ‑ through the subversion of the Jews. The Jews translated Ahriman into their Satan.

From the Persians they first learned ideas of Heaven and Hell, and of a Judgment Day.  Accounts  of the Affair color Judaic accounts of the last days in both the Mithraism, and the Talmud, a direct outgrowth of Zoroastrianism, was adapted in large part to Christian teachings and rituals, by the Jews. The Jews translated

Ahriman into their Satan. From the Persians they first learned ideas of Heaven and Hell, and of a Judgment day. Accounts of The Affair color Judaic accounts of the last days in the Talmud. Mithraism, a direct outgrowth of Zoroastrianism, was adapted in large part to Christian teachings and rituals, as we shall see." (Religions of the World, Gerald L. Berry, pp. 36‑39).

                                          MAGI

Priests of ancient Persia, and the cultivators of the wisdom of Zoroaster. They were instituted by Cyrus

when he founded the new Persian empire, and are supposed to have been of the Median race. Schlegel says

(Philosophy of History), "they were not so much a hereditary sacerdotal caste as an order or association, divided into various and successive ranks and grades, such as existed in the mysteries ‑ the grade of apprenticeship ‑

that of mastership; that of perfect mastership."

In short, they were a theolophical college; and either its professors were indifferently "magi," or

magicians, and "wise men," or they were distinguished into two classes by those names. Their name pronounced

"Mogh" by the modern Persians, and "Magh" by that ancients signified "Wise," and such is the interpretation of it

given by the Greek and Roman writers.

Stobaeus expressly calls the science of the magi, the service of the gods, so Plato. According to Ennemoser, "Magiusiah, Madschusie, signified the office and knowledge of the priest, who was called "Mag, Magius, Magiusi," and afterwards magi and "Magician." Brucker maintains that the primitive meaning of the word is "fire worshipper," "worship of the light," an erroneous opinion.

In the modern Persian the word is "Mog," and "Mogbed" signifies high priest. The high priest of the Parsees at Surat, even at the present day, is called, "Mobed."

Others derive the word from "Megh," "Meh‑ab" signifying something which is great and noble, and Zoroaster's disciples were called "Meghestom." Salverte states that these Mobeds are still named in the Pehivi dialect "Magoi."

They were divided into three classes: ‑‑ Those who abstained from all animal food; those who never ate of

the flesh of any tame animals; and those who made no scruple to eat any kind of meat. A belief in the

transmigration of the soul was the foundation of this abstinence.

They professed the science of divination, and for that purpose met together and consulted in their temples.

They professed to make truth the great object of their study; for that alone, they said, can make man like God

"whose body resembles light, as his soul or spirit resembles truth."

They condemned all images, and those who said that the gods are male and female; they had neither temples

nor altars, but worshipped the sky, as a representative of the Deity, on the tops of mountains; they also

sacrificed to the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and winds, says Herodotus, meaning, no doubt that they adored

the heavenly bodies and the elements.

This was probably before the time of Zoroaster, when the religion of Persia seems to have resembled that of

ancient India. Their hymns is praise of the Most High exceeded, according to Dio Chrysostom, the sublimity of

anything in Homer or Hesiod. They exposed their dead bodies to wild beasts. It is a question "whether the old

Persian doctrine and wisdom or tradition of light did not undergo material alterations in the hands of its Median

restorer, Zoroaster; or whether this doctrine was preserved in all its purity by the order of the magi."

He then remarks that on them devolved the important trust of the monarch's education, which must necessarily

have given them great weight and influence in the state. They were in high credit at the "Persian gates" for that

was the Oriental name given to the capitol of the empire, and the abode of the prince, and they took the most

active part in all the factions that encompassed the throne, or that were formed in the vicinity fraternities and

associations of initiated, formed by the mysteries, had in general but an indirect, though not unimportant

influence on affairs of state; but in the Persian monarchy they acquired a complete political ascendency.

Religion, philosophy, and the sciences were all in their hands, they were the universal physicians who healed the

sick in body and in spirit, and, in strict consistency with that character, ministered to the state, which is

only the man again in a larger sense.

The three grades of the magi alluded to are called by Herber the "disciples," the "professed," and the

"masters." They were originally from Bactria, where they governed a little state by laws of their own choice, and

by their incorporation in the Persian empire, they greatly promoted the consolidation of the conquests of Cyrus.

Their fall dates from the reign of Darius Hystaspes, about 500 B.C., by whom they were fiercely persecuted; this

produced an emigration which extended to Cappadocia on the one hand, and to India on the other, but they were

still of so much consideration at a later period, as to provoke the jealousy of Alexander the Great.

                        The Mystery Cults: Mithraism

In the Western world from the fifth century B.C. on there was increasing doubt concerning the old gods. The

influx of mystery religions from the East, the Sophist movement, and discovery of natural laws all had their

effect on reducing the importance of the old Olympic Pantheon. New philosophies ‑ those of Epicureans and Stoics particularly ‑ brought new beliefs and new explanations of life. As the old gods carried little moral

effectiveness and promised but little hope for the future, they lost ground before the mystery religions with

their promises of better things to come.

In Greece, the Dionysus and Demeter cults were prominent. In Rome, the Earth Mother Attis or Isis cult had

many followers ‑ traces of Isis worship are found as far west as the Seine River in France. This was the period when the "oracles" flourished, especially the one at Delphi.

According to legends concerning this oracle, there came from "the bowels of the earth" a vapor which emerged through an orifice in the rock floor of the temple to Apollo at Delphi. A priestess inhaled these vapors, passed into a trance, and then forecast the future ‑ usually in some riddling fasting much as would a modern seer at a spiritualistic seance.

One of the most famous answers was given to Croesus, King of Lydia, when he asked the oracle if he should

make war on Persia. The oracle gave answer: "If you do so, you will destroy a mighty empire." Misinterpreting

this answer, Croesus declared war, thereby bringing about the destruction of his own mighty empire.

One of the most significant answers was given to a question as to who was the wisest of the Greeks. The

answer was the single word "Socrates." Socrates, himself a religious man, doubted the validity of the answer and

devoted the rest of his life (unsuccessfully) in the search for a wiser man.

His unshakable conviction was that the human mind by application could determine value, right, virtue,

beauty, and other great ideals. He believed that the state could be improved by cultivating the individual. He

made no attempt to bring forth a new religion, but he became the nucleus of a philosophical school which was to

produce Aristotle and Plato.

Late in life he was tried for corruption of youth and executed. In death he was more powerful than in life,

as the serenity of his end had profound influence on the Greek world and, through it, on modern thought.

The later Greeks, with a developing sense of right and wring, reinterpreted the old gods as moral beings.

Many of the old religious stories became mere folk legends of the people. A belief in a hereafter led to a belief

in a Judgment Day with rewards and punishments.

     The old Hades, where souls of all the dead had gone according to ancient myth, became a place of torment for

the wicked guarded by the great mastiff, Cerberus. The initiate and the acceptable ones passed to bliss in the

Elysian Fields, formerly reserved for heroes.

     One of the earliest forms, and one of the most popular, arising with belief in a future life was Chthonian

worship. The Chthonians believed that man felt the same wants, pains, and pleasures in the future life as in the

present; that he had the same property rights; that he had the same need for a wife, cook, horse, tools, etc. The

main difference was an increase in his power to do harm.

     The eldest son succeeded to be master, priest, and king in his father's household, and on him fell the duty

of burial with appropriate rites. Woe fell on the son who failed in this duty.

     Gradually the family became extended to include the clan or tribe. As a man was under the protection of his

gods only "at home," it is easy to understand the terrible fear of banishment shown by the ancients.

     Their religion touched neither heart nor conscience, and this explains their moral code. Acts which seem to

us political were to them religious. Every war was a holy war because it was against people with different gods.

There was no moral obligation to captives, who might be sold, enslaved, or slain. Even the early Roman census was

for religious purposes, to ensure that all attended the lustration of atonement for previous shortcomings of the

state.

     Many cults arose in Greece and Rome, involving myths and legends of the birth, adventures, death, and

resurrection of a youth representative of the sun, life, or light. Many of the old "heroes" ‑ Bellerophon,

Mercury, Perseus, Theseus, Cephalus, Apollo, Hercules, Osiris ‑ filled the places of chief importance in these

cults. Another group was centered on the prolific Earth Mother, and of these the Isis cult was most far‑flung.

     The Romans would have made a cult of Je