Part 67 (2/2)

”Zeus is the beginning, Zeus is the middle, out of Zeus all things have been made.”[251:3]

_Bacchus_ was without beginning or end. An inscription on an ancient medal, referring to him, reads thus:

”It is I who leads you; it is I who protects you, and who saves you, I am Alpha and Omega.”

Beneath this inscription is a serpent, with his tail in his mouth, thus forming a _circle_, which was an emblem of _eternity_ among the ancients.[251:4]

Without enumerating them, we may say that the majority of the virgin-born G.o.ds spoken of in Chapter XII. were like Christ Jesus--without beginning or end--and that many of them were considered Creators of all things. This has led M. Dridon to remark (in his Hist.

de Dieu), that in _early works of art_, Christ Jesus is made to take the place of his Father in _creation_ and in similar labors, just as in heathen religions an inferior deity does the work under a superior one.

FOOTNOTES:

[247:1] John, i. 3.

[247:2] John, i. 10.

[247:3] Colossians, i.

[247:4] Hebrews, i. 2.

[247:5] Allen's India, pp. 137 and 380.

[247:6] Indian Antiq., vol. ii. p. 288.

[247:7] See the chapter on the Trinity.

[247:8] Oriental Religions, p. 502.

[247:9] Lecture iv. p. 51.

[247:10] Geeta, p. 52.

[248:1] O. M. or A. U. M. is the Hindoo ineffable name; the mystic emblem of the deity. It is never uttered aloud, but only mentally by the devout. It signifies Brahma, Vishnou, and Siva, the _Hindoo Trinity_.

(See Charles Wilkes in Geeta, p. 142, and King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. 163.)

[248:2] Geeta, p. 80.

[248:3] Geeta, p. 84.

[248:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 48.

[248:5] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 35.

[248:6] See Davis: Hist. China, vol. ii. pp. 109 and 113, and Thornton, vol. i. p. 137.

[249:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 259. In the most ancient parts of the Zend-Avesta, Ormuzd is said to have created the world by his WORD. (See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 104, and Gibbon's Rome, vol.

ii. p. 302, Note by Guizot.) ”In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with G.o.d, and the WORD was G.o.d.” (John, i. 1.)

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