Part 55 (2/2)

[202:4] See Ill.u.s.trations in Ibid. vol. i.

[202:5] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 252. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. 111, and Monumental Christianity, p. 246, _et seq._

[202:6] The paschal lamb was roasted on a _cross_, by ancient Israel, and is still so done by the Samaritans at Nablous. (See Lundy's Monumental Christianity, pp. 19 and 247.)

”The _lamb_ slain (at the feast of the pa.s.sover) was roasted whole, with two spits thrust through it--one lengthwise, and one transversely--crossing each other near the fore legs; so that the animal was, in a manner, _crucified_. Not a bone of it might be broken--a circ.u.mstance strongly representing the sufferings of our Lord Jesus, _the pa.s.sover slain for us_.” (Barnes's Notes, vol. i. p. 292.)

[202:7] See King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 138. Also, Monumental Christianity, and Jameson's History of Our Lord in Art, for ill.u.s.trations.

[203:1] See King's Gnostics, p. 178. Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. xxii., and Jameson's History of Our Lord in Art, ii. 340.

[203:2] Jameson: Hist. of Our Lord in Art, p. 340, vol. ii.

[203:3] Quoted in Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. xxii. _note_.

[203:4] Dunlap: Spirit Hist., p. 185.

[203:5] See chapter xvii. and vol. ii. Hist. Hindostan.

[203:6] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 142.

[204:1] ”It would be difficult to prove that the cross of Constantine was of the simple construction as now understood. . . . As regards the _Labarum_, the coins of the time, in which it is especially set forth, prove that the so-called cross upon it was nothing else than the same ever-recurring monogram of Christ” (that is, the XP). (History of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 310. See also, Smith's Bible Dictionary, art.

”Labarum.”)

[205:1] Deut. xxiv. 16.

[205:2] Num. xxv. 31-34.

[205:3] Matt. v. 17, 18.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE DARKNESS AT THE CRUCIFIXION.

The _Luke_ narrator informs us that at the time of the death of Christ Jesus, the sun was darkened, and there was darkness over the earth from the sixth until the ninth hour; also the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.[206:1]

The _Matthew_ narrator, in addition to this, tells us that:

”The earth did quake, and the rocks were rent, and the graves were opened, _and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves_ . . . and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.”[206:2]

”_His star_” having shone at the time of his birth, and his having been born in a miraculous manner, it was necessary that at the death of Christ Jesus, something miraculous should happen. Something of an unusual nature had happened at the time of the death of other supernatural beings, therefore something must happen at _his_ death; _the myth would not have been complete without it_. In the words of Viscount Amberly: ”The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour, the rending of the temple veil, the earthquake, the rending of the rocks, _are altogether like the prodigies attending the decease of other great men_.”[206:3]

The Rev. Dr. Geikie, one of the most orthodox writers, says:[206:4]

”It is impossible to explain the _origin_ of this darkness.

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