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BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
THE ANCIENT PERSIANS OF THE RELIGION OF ABRAHAM.—FIRST BOOKS OF GENESIS.—DISINGENUOUS CONDUCT IN THE TRANSLATORY OF THE BIBLE.—ABRAHAM ACKNOWLEDGED MORE THAN ONE GOD.
1. The religion and ancient philosophy of the Chaldeans, by whom are meant the Assyrians, as given by Stanley,[1] at first view exhibit a scene of the utmost confusion. This may be attributed in part to the circumstance, that it is not the history of their religion and philosophy at any one particular æra, but that it is extended over a space of several thousand years, during which, perhaps, they might undergo many changes. To this circumstance authors have not paid sufficient attention; so that what may have been accurately described in the time of Herodotus may have been much changed in the time of Porphyry. Thus different authors appear to write in contradiction to each other, though each may have written what was strictly true at the time of which he was writing.
Under the name of the country of the Chaldeans several states have at different periods been included. It has been the same with respect to Persia. When an author speaks of Persia, sometimes Persia only is meant, sometimes Bactria, sometimes Media, sometimes all three; and Assyria is very often included with them. Here is another source of difficulty and confusion.
After the conquest of Babylon and its dependent states, the empire founded by its conquerors, the Persians, was often called, by writers of the Western part of the world, the Assyrian or Chaldean empire. In all these states or kingdoms the religion of the Persians prevailed; and the use of the indiscriminate terms, Persian, Assyrian, and Chaldean, by Porphyry, Plutarch, &c., when treating of that empire, has been the cause of much of the uncertainty respecting what was the religion of the Persians and Assyrians. Thus, when one historian says, the Chaldeans, meaning the Assyrians, worshiped the idol Moloch; and another says, they worshiped fire, as the emblem of the Deity; they are probably both correct: one assertion is true before the time of Cyrus, the other afterward,
Although it may not be possible to make out a connected and complete system, yet it will be no difficult matter to shew, that, at one particular time, the worship of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Babylonians, was that of one Supreme God; that the Sun was worshiped as an emblem only of the divinity, and that the religions of Abraham, of the children of Israel, and of these Eastern nations were originally the same. The Christian divines, who have observed the identity, of course maintain that the other nations copied from Moses, or the natives of Palestine, i. e. that several great and mighty empires, copied from a small and insignificant province. No doubt this is possible: whether probable or not must be left to the judgment of the reader, after he has well considered all the circumstances detailed in the following work.
2. The very interesting and ancient book of Genesis, on which the modern system of the
- ↑ Part XIX.
