Part 10 (1/2)
[39:4] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 302.
[40:1] Ibid.
[40:2] See chapter xi.
[41:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 368.
[41:2] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 448.
[41:3] See Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii.
CHAPTER V.
JACOB'S VISION OF THE LADDER.
In the 28th chapter of Genesis, we are told that Isaac, after blessing his son Jacob, sent him to Padan-aram, to take a daughter of Laban's (his mother's brother) to wife. Jacob, obeying his father, ”went out from Beer-sheba (where he dwelt), and went towards Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of the place, and put them for his pillow, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a _ladder_ set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. _And he beheld the angels of G.o.d ascending and descending on it._ And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said: 'I am the Lord G.o.d of Abraham thy father, and the G.o.d of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.' . . . And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and he said: 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I know it not.' And he was afraid, and said: 'How _dreadful_ is this place, _this is none other than the house of G.o.d, and this is the gate of Heaven_.'
And Jacob rose up early in the morning, _and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it_. And he called the name of that place _Beth-el_.”
The doctrine of Metempsychosis has evidently something to do with this legend. It means, in the theological acceptation of the term, the supposed transition of the soul after death, into another substance or body than that which it occupied before. The belief in such a transition was common to the most civilized, and the most uncivilized, nations of the earth.[42:1]
It was believed in, and taught by, the _Brahminical Hindoos_,[42:2] the _Buddhists_,[42:3] the natives of _Egypt_,[42:4] several philosophers of ancient _Greece_,[43:1] the ancient _Druids_,[43:2] the natives of _Madagascar_,[43:3] several tribes of _Africa_,[43:4] and _North America_,[43:5] the ancient _Mexicans_,[43:4] and by some _Jewish_ and _Christian_ sects.[43:5]
”It deserves notice, that in both of these religions (_i. e._, _Jewish_ and _Christian_), it found adherents as well in ancient as in modern times. Among the _Jews_, the doctrine of transmigration--the Gilgul Neshamoth--was taught in the mystical system of the _Kabbala_.”[43:6]
”All the souls,” the spiritual code of this system says, ”are subject to the trials of transmigration; and men do not know which are the ways of the Most High in their regard.” ”The principle, in short, of the _Kabbala_, is the same as that of _Brahmanism_.”
”On the ground of this doctrine, which was shared in by Rabbis of the highest renown, it was held, for instance, that the soul of _Adam_ migrated into _David_, and will come in the _Messiah_; that the soul of _j.a.phet_ is the same as that of _Simeon_, and the soul of _Terah_, migrated into _Job_.”
”Of all these transmigrations, biblical instances are adduced according to their mode of interpretation--in the writings of Rabbi Mana.s.se ben Israel, Rabbi Naphtali, Rabbi Meyer ben Gabbai, Rabbi Ruben, in the Jalkut Khadash, and other works of a similar character.”[43:4]
The doctrine is thus described by Ovid, in the language of Dryden:
”What feels the body when the soul expires, By time corrupted, or consumed by fires?
Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats Into other forms, and only changes seats.
Ev'n I, who these mysterious truths declare, Was once Euphorbus in the Trojan war; My name and lineage I remember well, And how in fight by Spartan's King I fell.
In Argive Juno's fame I late beheld My buckler hung on high, and own'd my former s.h.i.+eld Then death, so called, is but old matter dressed In some new figure, and a varied vest.
Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies, And here and there the unbodied spirit flies.”
The Jews undoubtedly learned this doctrine after they had been subdued by, and become acquainted with other nations; and the writer of this story, whoever he may have been, was evidently endeavoring to strengthen the belief in this doctrine--he being an advocate of it--by inventing this story, _and making Jacob a witness to the truth of it_. Jacob would have been looked upon at the time the story was written (_i. e._, after the Babylonian captivity), as of great authority. We know that several writers of portions of the Old Testament have written for similar purposes. As an ill.u.s.tration, we may mention the book of _Esther_. This book was written for the purpose of explaining the origin of the festival of _Purim_, and _to encourage the Israelites to adopt it_. The writer, _who was an advocate of the feast_, lived long after the Babylonish captivity, and is quite unknown.[44:1]
The writer of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew has made Jesus a teacher of the doctrine of Transmigration.
The Lord had promised that he would send Elijah (Elias) the prophet, ”before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord,”[44:2] and Jesus is made to say that he had already come, or, _that his soul had transmigrated unto the body of John the Baptist_, and they knew it not.[44:3]
And in Mark (viii. 27) we are told that Jesus asked his disciples, saying unto them; ”Whom do men say that _I_ am?” whereupon they answer: ”Some say Elias; and others, one of the prophets;” or, in other words, that the soul of Elias, or one of the prophets, had transmigrated into the body of Jesus. In John (ix. 1, 2), we are told that Jesus and his disciples seeing a man ”_which was blind from his birth_,” the disciples asked him, saying; ”Master, who did sin, _this man_ (in some former state) or his parents.” Being _born_ blind, how else could he sin, _unless in some former state_? These pa.s.sages result from the fact, which we have already noticed, that some of the Jewish and Christian sects believed in the doctrine of Metempsychosis.