Part 1 (2/2)

Hume's observation that polytheism invariably preceded ation The belief in one God or supres out of the belief in many Gods or spirits That this was so with the Jews there is sufficient evidence in the Bible, despite the fact that the documents so called have been frequently ”redacted,” that is corrected, and the evidence in large part erased

An instance of this falsification es xviii 30 (see Revised Version), where ”Manasseh” has been piously substituted for Moses, in order to conceal the fact that the direct descendants of Moses were ie worshi+ppers down till the tiave what Milton calls ”this insulse rule out of their Talmud; 'That all words, which in the Law are written obscenely, ed to more civil words' Fools ould teach ood to write” Instances of euphees iii 24, Song v 3, Isaiah vii 20); ”thigh”

(Num v 24); ”heel” (Gen, iii 15); ”heels” (Jer xiii 22); and ”hand”

(Isaiah lvii 7) This last verse is translated by Dr Cheyne, ”and behind the door and the post hast thou placed thy one up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and obtained a contract from them (?); thou hast loved their bed; thou hast beheld the phallus” In his note Dr Cheyne gives the view of the Targum and Jerome ”that 'memorial' = idol (or rather idolatrous syy for Smectymnus,” Works, p84

The priests, whose policy it was to keep the nation isolated, did their best to destroy the evidence that the Jews shared in the idolatrous beliefs and practices of the nations around them In particular the cult of Baal and Asherah, which we shall see was a form of phallic worshi+p, becaht to be obliterated The worshi+p, moreover, became an esoteric one, known only to the priestly caste, as it still is a Roman Catholic initiates, and the priestly caste were naturally desirous that the ordinary worshi+pper should not become ”as one of us”

It is unquestionable that in the earliest times the Hebreorshi+pped Baal In proof there is the direct assertion of Jahveh himself (Hosea ii 16) that ”thou shalt call me _Ishi+_ [my husband] and shalt call me no more _Baali_” The evidence of names, too, is decisive Gideon's other name, Jerubbaal (Jud vi 32, and 1 Sam xii 11), was evidently the true one, for in 2 Sam xi 21, the name Jerubbesheth is substituted Eshbaal (1 Chron viii 33) is called Ishbosheth (2 Sam

ii 8, 10) Meribbaal (1 Chron viii 34) is Mephibosheth (2 Sam iv

4) Now _bosheth_ ,” and as Dr

Donaldson points out, in especial, ”sexual shaint version of 1 Kings xviii 25, the prophets of Baal are called ”the prophets of that shame” Hosea ix 10 says ”they went to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to Bosheth and beca thy Bosheth naked” Jere to the nu to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to Bosheth, altars to burn incense unto Baal”

So Baaljadah [1 Chron xiv 7] is Eliada [2 Sam v 161]

In 1 Chron xii 6, we have the curious combination, Baaljah, ie Baal is Jah, as the name of one of David's heroes

The place where the ark stood, known afterwards as Kirjath-jearim, was formerly nae of name took place after David's time, since the writer of 2 Sam vi 2 says merely that David ith the ark from ”Baale of Judah” Colenso notices that when the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal are said to have been destroyed by Elijah, nothing is said of the four hundred prophets of the Asherah ”Also these saether by Ahab as prophets of JHVH, and they reply in the nas xxii 5-6”

That phallicism was an important element in Baal and Asherah worshi+p is well known to scholars, and will bereaders

The frequent allusion to ”groves” in the Authorised Version must have puzzled estion of ”tree worshi+p” does not fit in very ith the iht out the grove from the house of the Lord” A reference to the Revised Version will show that thisword is intended to conceal the real nature of the worshi+p of Asherah The door of life, the conventional form of the Asherah with its thirteen flowers or3

The ”Baal” was afterwards taken out of all such names of places, and instead of Baal Peor, Baal Meon, Baal Tamar, Baal Shalisha, etc, we find Beth Peor, Beth Meon, Beth Tamar, etc

Verse vii says, ”he brake down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, where the worove” A reference to the Revised Version shows that it was ”in the house of the Lord, where the wos [or tents] for the Asherah” See also Ezek xvi 16

This worshi+p certainly lasted from the earliest historic times until the seventeenth year of Josiah, BC 624 We read how in the days of the Judges they ”served Baalies iii, 7; see ii 12, ”Baal and Ash-taroth) We find that Solos xi 5) and that he builded the in, ie, the mount of Olives) for that ”abos xxiii 13) All the distinctive features of Solomon's Temple were Phoenician in character What the Phoenician temples were like Lucian tells us in his treatise on the Goddess of Syria The great pillars Jachin, ”the establisher,” and Boaz, ”strength”; the ornaranates, and lotus work; are all Phoenician and all phallic The bells and poarment were emblematic of the paps and full womb

The palm-tree, which appears both in Solomon's temple and in Ezekiel's vision, was sy

4), and which finds a place in Eastern Christian sy 5)

The worshi+p of Astoreth, the assyrian Ishtar, and Greek Astarte, idespread The Phoenicians took it with thee In the days of Abraham there was a town called after her (Gen xiv 5), and to this day her na 3--Asherah]

It is she who is called the Queen of Heaven, to whom the women made moon-shaped cakes and poured libations (Jer vii 18, xliv 17) Baal represented the generative, Astoreth the productive power The pillars and asherah, so often alluded to in the Bible, were the pal around the tree of life, the female near the fleur de lis and the ht trees, especially the palm, were reverenced as syns of fruitfulness and joy

[Illustration: Fig 4--Fro 20, depicts the ns of their worshi+p, and Dr Oort says of the nainally a pillar on, or near--not only the altars of Baal--but also the altars of JHVH”]

Bishop Colenso in his notes to Dr Oort's work remarks, ”It seeht, erect) was in reality a phallus, like the _Linga_ or _Lingaeneration”

The Worshi+p of Baalim and Israel, p 46

Asher was the tutelary God of assyria His eed circle