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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 1

Who was Moses?

Who was Moses?

"Bacchus was found on the waters in an ark." (Lempriere's Classical Dictionary.)

"Moses was found on the waters in an ark." (Exodus xxii.)

"Bacchus was called Moses, because he was drawn up from the waters." (Hymn of Orpheus.)

"Moses was called by that name for the same reason." (Exodus ii. 10.)

"Bacchus was styled the lawgiver." (Orphic Hymn.)

"Moses is styled the lawgiver." (Exodus xiv. 12.)

"Bacchus had two mothers, his own and Thyos his nurse." (Pomey, p. 71.)

Moses had two mothers, his own and Pharaoh's daughter" (Exodus ii. 10.)

"Bacchus was represented with horns,"
With golden horns, supremely bright,
You darted round the bending light."

—(Hor. Ode to Bacchus, Francis Tran., p. 223.)

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"Moses is said to be double horned; and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord." (Douay version, Exodus xxxiv., 29.) To which the following foot-note is appended:—"Horned, that is, shining, and sending rays of light like horns."

"Bacchus had snakes sacrificed to him." (Hor. Ode.)

"Moses erected the serpent in the wilderness." (Num. xxi., 9)

"Bacchus had Anubis, the dog star for a companion." (See the Abbe Pluche, vol. 1, p. 23).

"Moses had Caleb for a companion, which, in Hebrew, signifies dog. Caleb was the son of Jephunneh, which signifies beholding, or spying. Caleb was sent to spy out the land, like Anubis the dog-star, who is also called the spyer."

"Bacchus dried up the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes, and passed through them dryshod, as Moses passed through the red sea." (Non. in Diom. i., 23, 35.)

"Bacchus struck water out of the rock with his rod." (Eurip. in Bacchus, Hor. Ode).

"Moses struck water out of the rock." (Exodus xvii., 6.)

"Bacchus' rod was turned into a dragon." (Non. Bach, in can. i., 23, 25, 45.)

"Moses turned his rod into a serpent." (Exodus vii., 10.)

"Bacchus covered the Indians with darkness." (Non. vos Bach.)

"Moses covered the Egyptians with darkness."

"Bacchus is called Osaraph, which means the valiant," (Plutarch, Isis, and Osiris).

"Moses is called Arsaph." (Josephus i., 26.)

"Bacchus married Zipporah, a name of Venus, and one of seven planets."

"Moses married Zipporah, one of seven daughters."

"Bacchus is called Jehovah Nisi." (Boyce on the Gods, p. 136.)

"Moses raised an altar to Jehovah Nisi." (Exodus xvii., 15.)

"Bacchus received bis education on Mount Nisi, hence his name Dio Nisi, i.e., God Nisi," (Ross's Mystagogus, p. 40.) "By transposing one letter, Nisi becomes Sini, the mountain upon which Moses received his instructions from Jehovah."

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"Bacchus, during the giants' war, distinguished himself greatly by his valour in the form of a lion." (Boyce on the Gods.)

"Moses led an army against the Anakim, which signifies giants in Hebrew."

"Bacchus was sent to destroy a sinful nation." (Hor. Ode.)

"Moses was sent to destroy an idolatrous nation."

Christian writers are anxious to prove that the story of Bacchus is copied from that of Moses; but Bacchus and his exploits were known to all the nations of antiquity, and not one of their poets or historians has said anything of Moses.

"Cadmus is said to have been the father of Semele, the mother of Bacchus."

Cadmus is represented as a giant, and Nonnus says that he planted in Greece a colony of giants—hence the Cadmians were styled Anakis and Anaktos, and the temple of their Gods Anaktoria. These terms were imported from Egypt and Canaan, see Numbers xiii., 28.

By turning to the Bible we find that the father of Semele is mentioned in Genesis xv., 19, from a district called after him in the time of Abraham, consequently we have another proof of the antiquity of the story of Bacchus 400 years, according to bible chronology before the time of Moses. The Jesuit Pomey, who composed a work on the history of the heathen gods for the instruction of the Dauphin of France, informs us, (we quote the translation of this work by the Rev. A. Took, Head-master of the Charter House, p. 21), where he says: Mount Harmon (mentioned in Deut. xv., 29) was called after the wife of Cadmus and mother to Semele, the mother of Bacchus, and so it came to pass that the wife of Cadmus had the name of Hermione, from the same mountain. Cadmus is also alluded to in the 19th verse, where the Kadmonites are mentioned: "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river Euphrates unto the river of Egypt, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites," &c. Here then we have Cadmus on the stage of existence prior to the days of Abraham, inasmuch as there was a tribe of people called after him.

"The history of the Egyptian God Bacchus is miraculous; page 38 the history of the Jew Moses is miraculous: therefore they are not within the bounds of probability."

Paine said regarding miracles: "Nature has changed her course, or men have told lies." Quoted from "Moses and Bacchus" by Myles McSweeney

Bishop Faustus says,—"It is an undoubted fact, that the New Testament was not written by Christ himself, nor by his apostles, but a long while after their time, by some unknown persons, who lest they should not be credited when they wrote of affairs they were little acquainted with, affixed to their works the names of apostles, or of such as were supposed to have been their companions, and then said that they were written according to them."

"It was in Egypt," says the great ecclesiastical historian, Mosheim, that the morose discipline of Asceticism took its rise; and it is observable, that that country has in all times, as it were by an immutable law or disposition of nature, abounded with persons of a melancholy complexion, and produced, in proportion to its extent, more gloomy spirits than any other parts of the world. It was here that the Essenes dwelt principally, long before the coming of Christ."

The Essenes, in addition to their monopoly of the art of healing, professed themselves to be Eclectics. Lactantius, says—That Christianity itself was the Eclectic Philosophy inasmuch as that "if there had been any one to have collected the truth that was scattered and diffused among the various sects of philosophers and divines into one, and to have reduced it into a system, there would indeed be no difference between him and a Christian." Quoted from the Rev. Robert Taylor's "Diegesis."

Most of the best things which Jesus taught were borrowed from Heathen Theology.

Confucius 500 years before the Christian era—taught,—Do unto another what thou would he should do unto you; and do not unto another what you would not should be done unto you. Thou only needest this law alone; it is the foundation and principle of all the rest." Jesus taught,—"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; page 39 for this is the law and the prophets." Ah, so it turns out that this much vaunted piece of Christianity, which Christians do so love to brag about, was taught by a Chinaman at least 500 years before the Jew called Jesus was heard of. The precept (perhaps) is as lofty a one as was ever taught. But in the name of truth, why call it the word of God when we know it to be the words of a Chinaman?

Confucius says—"Desire not the death of thine enemy; thou wouldest desire it in vain; his life is in the hands of heaven, but never revenge injuries."

Jesus says,—"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." The similarity is very striking.

The model prayer, called the Lord's Prayer, with which Jesus furnished His followers, He evidently borrowed from Jewish literature. The few instances of verbal differences between it and the following translation of a part of the Jewish Euchologues, made by a reverend and pious Christian, may be the result of a little alteration effected by time, either in the Christian or Jewish prayer, or even in both; or may have arisen either from Jesus's imperfect recollection of the Jewish prayer, or from the imperfect manner in which His repetition of it was reported by the evangelists. The principal difference, however, is caused by Jesus's omission of several words found in the Jewish prayer, which would indicate that he knew it but imperfectly. But even now, at this distant time, when each has undergone a translation from a dead language, they are so much alike that they furnish ample internal evidence of their identity. The Jewish prayer runs thus: "Our Father, which art in heaven, be gracious to us O Lord, our God; and hallowed be Thy name, and let the remembrance of Thy name be glorified in heaven above, and upon earth here below. Let Thy kingdom reign over us, now and for ever. The holy men of old said, remit and forgive unto all men whatsoever they have done against me, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil thing. For Thine is the kingdom, and Thou shall reign in glory, for ever and for evermore." (The works of the Rev. John Gregorie, p. 168. Lond. 1685.)

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"Well might Basnage (Hist, des Juifs, tom. 6 p. 374) say that the Jews had an ancient prayer called the Kadish, precisely like Jesus's prayer; and Wetstain remark that it is a carious fact that the Lord's Prayer may be reconstructed almost verbatim out of the Talmud."

"From Jewish lore also we find that Jesus borrowed the absurd doctrine—"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on," (Matthew vi., 25-34.) Indeed the whole of Jesus's "Sermon on the Mount" is a collection of aphorisms taught by different nations long before his time."

The doctrine of being "born again," which Jesus endeavoured to teach to Nicodemus (John iii., 1-13), and which modern Christians call regeneration, is clearly borrowed from the heathens. It is a very prominent doctrine in the religion of the Brahmins, and pervades the Institutes of Menu, of which their learned and pious translator, Sir William Jones, says, in his preface to them, that they are "really one of the oldest compositions existing," and fixes their date" 1580 years before the birth of our Saviour," making them "older than the five books of Moses," while the Brahmins themselves make them many thousands of years older.

On the subject of the second birth Jesus says:—"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,"—"Except a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again."

The same doctrine is taught by Chrishna, in his Dialogue with Arjoon, in the Bhagvat-Geeta, p. 67,—a portion of the sacred books of the Indians, translated from the Sanscrit by Mr. Charles Wilkins, and published in 1785.

The same doctrine was taught by Pythagoras, more than 500 years before the Christian era, and by all ancient moralists who believed in transmigration; and there is little doubt that it was this transmigration which Jesus meant in speaking of being born again or anew:—There is in the Indian Divine Book—the Bhagat—Geeta, already mentioned, a great number of expres- page 41 sions identical with phrases found in the Gospels attributed to Jesus. For instance, the incarnate God, Chrishna, who is said to have been on earth some thousands of years before the Christian era—who was the son of Devaci, born of a virgin—whose birth was concealed through fear of the tyrant Cansa, to whom it had been prophesied that a child, about this time, would be born, and would destroy his family—who during the time he was hidden from Cansa, when he had ordered all new-born male children to be massacred, was miraculously preserved—who raised many from the dead—who descended into hell—who was immaculately holy—who was most meek and lowly—who preached the most sublime morality—and who is represented as the creator of all, the beginning and the end—but who was despised in human form.

The Brahmin priests had a crook or staff, like Elisha, and like our bishops, wore the hides of beasts, girdles of leather, and mantles, like Elijah and John the Baptist, shaved their heads like the Nazarenes and the tonsured Christian priests, were to have no land like the Levites, and Christian priests begged like the mendicant Christian monks, and were not to be put to death for any crime, nor to pay toll, thus having the Christian "Benefit of clergy." This law also prescribed sacrifices and adorations; allowed plurality of wives; permitted a man to raise seed for his deceased brother; pronounced hogs and animals with uncloven feet unclean; prescribed lunar days; sacrifices at new moons; water purifications, fasts and feasts; all of which the Jews imitated. It had a heaven and a hell; taught the doctrine of a future state and a resurrection; and had a third heaven like the Apostle Paul. It taught that a man's sins would visit his posterity, like the Hebrew scriptures. It is most singular that the Jews, who boasted that they had the Deity for their King and lawgiver, had no regulations but what other nations had practised many hundreds, if not thousands, of years before they had any existence as a nation." ("The Prophet of Nazareth," by Evan Powell Meredith.)

There is scarcely a breath of what passes for Christianity that is not of Pagan origin. Yes, even to saying grace before and after meals.

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The first article of the Church of England, is taken from the Hindoo Bible:—In the sixth volume, page 422, of the works of Sir William Jones, will be found the following quotation:—

"Veda, and 1st article of our church."

"There is one living and true God, everlasting without body, parts or passion, of infinite power and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible, &c., &c.

Now it will be seen from the above, that the very first thing the clergy swear they believe in, when entering into holy orders, is Paganism.

Yet these very men would, if they had the power, send the first man to gaol who dares to hint that their so-called divine religion is not of divine origin.

These rev. gentlemen are either ignorant as to where their religion came from, or they are dishonest.

But in the name of truth I would ask what do these rev. gentlemen mean by taking their oath that they believe, and will teach that God is without body, or parts; when at the same time they must know that the Lord told Mr. Moses that he might see his back parts, "and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts?" Exodus xxxiii., 23.

Now were I to admit that the Bible is the Word of God, would that help the case any? No. The book gives an account of shedding of so much blood, that it would be happiness to know, the slaughtering mentioned had never taken place.

The battles fought (according to the Bible) by the God of the Jews, whom they carried about in a box, make all modern battles appear nothing more than slight skirmishes.

We are told in the sixth chapter of Genesis, the sons of God took the fair daughters of men for wives. I suppose there is nothing strange for women to have young Gods for husbands? But, by the way, if I remember right, when I was a christian I was taught that Jesus was God's only begotten son.

The seventh chapter tells us, that every living substance was destroyed except Noah and his family. This is bad news, and the less one reads about a drowning world the better he will sleep. When I was a christian, I thought the people deserved to be drowned, and saw nothing cruel or unjust about it. Now it appears to me the most horrible affair I ever heard of.

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What in the name of common-sense could smiling babies, and laughing children have done that it was necessary to drown them?

How absurd and contradictory it is to believe that a good God would go on, making human beings for 1656 years; according to the Hebrew text—or 1307 years according to the Samaritan text;—or 2242, according to the Septuagint text; knowing all the while that He would drown them.

Had the writers of this story told us that ten thousand devils had drowned the world, that would have been sufficiently absurd. But much less so than the way it is now told.

Now God having washed out everything that was bad, Noah had a clean start. But almost the first thing he did was to get drunk, "and was uncovered within his tent." On waking up he learned that one of his sons had seen him in this beastly state, and instead of being ashamed of himself he cursed his son.

It is fortunate for Noah that he is not living at the present time, as he would soon find himself in the lock-up. But absurd as this story may be about Noah it is a thousand times more so to call it the Word of God.

It was 292 years, according to the Hebrew text from the Deluge to the birth of Abraham, 942 according to the Samaritan text, and 1072 according to the Septuagint text. But what signifies a blunder of a few hundreds of years to those who have faith?

The only news we get between the Deluge and the birth of Abraham (except being told how old Mr. Peleg, and a number of other celebrities were at the time their first sons were born), is that the people commenced to build a tower, whose top was to reach unto heaven. There is no doubt in my mind, but a man would get to heaven just as soon by building a tower as any other way.