Christianity
Christian Mythology 2
Abstract
© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Thursday, November 19, 1998
The Divine Word
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).
The doctrine of the divine creative word (from the Greek word logos) appears to have been coeval in its origin with that of the Trinity. It constitutes the second member of the Trinity of “Father, Word, and Holy Ghost” in most of the ancient religions. Heathen mythology shows that it was customary to personify ideas, thoughts and words into angels and gods.
The Word made flesh was simply the word of the supreme God assuming the characteristics of a god like himself as it left his mouth. It then took the second position of the Trinity. This was the oriental idea and it seems to have been John’s. He believed that the Word emerged from the mouth of the Father and “the Word was made flesh” (John 1:14). Here is no role for a human mother and he seems to deny any such implication (John 1:13). Why then does he allude to “the mother of Christ”?
John description of the Word as the Creator: “All things were made by him” (John 1:3) shows he believed in Christ’s existence as the creator before his human birth. Peter declares (2 Peter 3:5): “By the word of God the heavens were of old”. The Chinese bible, much older than the Christian’s New Testament, likewise declares:
God pronounced the primeval Word, and his own eternal and glorious abode sprang into existence.
According to the Zend-Avesta, the Persian bible, more than three thousand years old, it is by the Word, more ancient than the world, that Ormuzd created the universe.
Much of John’s language is strikingly similar to that employed by some of the disciples of these oriental religions, who believed that a second god emanated from the mouth of God to perform the act of creation. Many of them believed that this creative “Word” became afterward a subject of human birth as an Avatar. John might then have taken from the heathen orientalists the idea that the second god in the trinity, as he represents Christ to be, was reborn in the human fashion after having sprung into existence as the Word. Otherwise his allusion to was done in condescension to the general belief among the people that he had a human mother.
The sacred writings of the Tibetans speak of “the Word which produced the world”.
The Greek writer Amelius speaking of the God Mercury, says:
He was the Logos (the Word), by whom all things were made, he being himself eternal. He was assumed to be with God and to be God and in him everything that was made has its life and being, who, descending into body, and putting on flesh, took the appearance of a man, though still retaining the majesty of his nature.
Here is “the Word made flesh” set forth more clearly than it is in the New Testament. However, the Psalmist exclaims (Ps 33:6):
By the Word of God were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the Breath of his mouth.
Here is disclosed not only the conception of the Word as Creator, but also the Word and the Breath as synonymous terms, traceable to oriental heathenism.
It was anciently believed that the Word and Breath of God were the same, and possessed a vitalizing power, which, as they issued from his mouth, might be transformed into another being known as a secondary God. Both the Jews and the Christians seem to have inherited this belief, as evinced by the foregoing quotations from their bible. The most ancient tradition taught that the Word emanated from the mouth of the principal God, and became flesh that is, took form, as the ancient Brahmins expressed it, for the special purpose of serving as agent in the work of creation, that is, to become the creator of the external universe. S John used this precise idea.
The Hindus taught:
The Word had existed with God from all eternity, and when spoken it became a glorious form, the aggregate embodiment of all the divine ideas, and performed the work of creation.
And of Krishna, it is affirmed that “while upon the earth he existed also in heaven”.
The same thought occurred in the ancient Egyptian religion and the Chinese bible states that “though the Holy Word (Chang-si) will be born upon the earth, yet he existed before anything was made”. Even Pythagoras existed in heaven before he was born upon the earth, his followers believed. All the old religions believed the world was created by the Word, and that this Word existed before creation.
The reason why the Word was considered the creator was that the principal God, like the kings of earth, was too aristocratic to labour with his own hands. A lesser God performed the work of creation and was called The Word.
Creation became impossible to a being already infinite and was a derogation to a being already perfect. Some lower God, some Avatar, must be interposed as an emanation from the mouth of the God supreme to perform the subordinate task of creation. Hence, originated and came forth the Word as Creator.
The living Divine Word was usually known by different names and titles, before and after its human incarnation..
Among the ancient Persians, the name for the divine spiritual Word was Hanover. After its human birth it was called Mithras the Mediator. The Hindu name for the primeval Word was Om or Aum. After its human birth it was called Krishna. The Chinese Holy Word was Omi-to, and its incarnation was Chang-ti or Ti-enti. The Japanese Divine Word was Amina. They taught, like John, that it came forth from the mouth of the Supreme God (Brahm) to perform the work of creation, after which, it was known as Sakya. The Jewish founders of Christianity believed in an original Divine Word, which they call memra. When it descended to the earth, and “became flesh and dwelt amongst us” (John 1:14.), it was known as Jesus Christ. The title of the Word is found in the Indian, Persian, the Platonic, and the Alexandrian systems.
There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and the Son is identified with the Word. The Word is the second person in the Trinity and this was its position in the Brahman, Persian and other Eatern religions. All religions which taught the existence of the Word as a great primeval spirit represent him as secondary to the supreme. The Hindus reverenced it next to Brahman.
The Word, the Holy Word and the Divine Word are used of the Christian bible, without any suspicion of their heathen origin. The Zend-Avesta, the Persian bible was the “Living Word of God”, for that is what Zend-Avesta means. The oldest bible in the world is the Vedas and it means both Word and Wisdom.
When the incarnate Word returned to heaven, he left a part of his living spirit in the divine writings which contained his doctrines and which be himself had prompted his disciples to write as his “Last Revelation to Man”. The practice of calling bibles the “Word of God” came from this belief, The divine writings literally contained some of the Word, hence, both spirit and book were called The Holy Word.
The Holy Ghost
To try to comprehend the Holy Ghost let us first classify its various names and characteristics drawn from the gospels and epistles of the Christian bible. It shows that scarcely any two references to it agree in assigning it the same character or attributes.
- John 14:26—the Holy Ghost is s a person or personal God
- Luke 3:22—the Holy Ghost assumes the form of a dove
- Matthew 13:16—the Holy Ghost is a spirit
- John 1:32—the Holy Ghost is an inanimate, senseless object
- John 5:7—the Holy Ghost is a God—the third member of the Trinity
- Acts 2:1—the Holy Ghost is a mighty, rushing wind
- Acts 10:38—the Holy Ghost, from its mode of application, is an ointment
- John 20:22—the Holy Ghost is the breath, by its being breathed into the mouth of the recipient after the ancient oriental custom
- Acts 2:3—the Holy Ghost sat upon each of them, probably in the form of a bird, as at Jesus’ baptism
- Acts 2:1—the Holy Ghost appears as cloven tongues of fire
- Luke 2:26—the Holy Ghost is the author of a revelation or inspiration
- Acts 8:17—the Holy Ghost is a magnetic aura imparted by the laying on of hands
- Mark 1:8—the Holy Ghost is a medium or element for baptism
- Acts 28:25—the Holy Ghost appears with vocal organs, and speaks
- Hebrews 6:4—the Holy Ghost is dealt out or imparted by measure
- Luke 3:22—the Holy Ghost appears with a tangible body
- Luke 1:5—and many other texts, people are filled with the Holy Ghost
- Matthew 11:15—the Holy Ghost falls upon the people as a ponderable substance
- Luke 4:1—the Holy Ghost is a God within a God—“Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost”
- Acts 21:11—the Holy Ghost is a being of the masculine or feminine gender—“Thus saith the Holy Ghost”
- John 1:32—the Holy Ghost is of the neuter gender, “it (the Holy Ghost) abode upon him”
- Matthew 1:18—the Holy Ghost, this third member of the Trinity aids the first member (the Father) in the creation of the second member of the trinity of bachelor Gods—the Word, or Saviour, or Son of God.
The Holy Ghost surpasses the fabulous changes of the classical gods and genii. Indeed many of these fabulous conceptions were drawn from mythological sources.
The Christian’s Holy Ghost descended as a dove and alighted on Christ’s head at his baptism (Luke 3:22). The Holy Ghost in the shape of a bird—a dove or a pigeon—is a very ancient pagan tradition. In India, a dove was uniformly the emblem of the Holy Spirit or Spirit of God. A dove stood for a third member of the Trinity, and was the regenerator or regeneratory power. Compare this with Titus 3:5: “regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost”. A person being baptized under the Brahminical theocracy was said to be regenerated and born again, or, they were born into the spirit, or the spirit into them—the dove into or upon them.
In Rome a dove or pigeon was a legendary spirit, the accompaniment of Venus, the emblem of female procreative energy. It is therefore appropriately shown as descending at baptism in the character of the third member of the Trinity. The dove also fills the Grecian oracles with their spirit and power. A dove was, in several ancient religions, the Spirit of God (Holy Ghost) moving on the face of the waters at creation (Gen 1:2), though a pigeon was often substituted. The dove and the pigeon were used interchangeably.
In the ancient Syrian temple of Hierapolis, Semiramis is shown with a dove on her head, the prototype of the dove on the head of the Christian messiah at baptism. At the feast of Whitsuntide, the descent of the Holy Ghost was symbolised in London by a pigeon being let fly out of a hole in the midst of the roof of the great aisle of St Paul’s Cathedral. It is more than likely that this continues an ancient tradition. On solemn occasions when the Holy Ghost was expected or invited to descend, it was more than likely that originally no one in the congregation noticed that it did. The custom therefore arose of liberating pigeons or doves at the appropriate moment. Naturally, these doves would have been actually ascending, having realised that they were no longer constrained, but that would not have bothered the faithful who eventually came to understand the symbolism. In any case, the doves would most likely have been tame ones bred for the purpose and possibly made no great effort to escape, like the pigeons in crowded city plazas. So, it is quite possible that sometimes one of the tame birds did alight on the priest—perhaps they were trained to do just that. The pictures of priests or gods with a dove on their head might be depictions of actual rituals.
The Holy Ghost was the third member of the Trinity in several Eastern religions as well as the Gothic and Celtic nations. This notion of a third person in the the godhead was diffused among all the nations of the earth. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, or Father, Word and Holy Ghost (1 John 5:7) express the divine triad of which the Holy Ghost was the third member. The Holy Spirit and the Evil Spirit were, each in their turn, third member of the Trinity.
In these triads the third member was not of equal rank with the other two. In the Theban Trinity, Khonso was inferior to Arion and Mant. In the Hindu triad, Siva was subordinate to Brahma and Vishnu. The Holy Ghost conception of the Christian world is an exact correspondence with these older ideas. It has always stood third in rank after the Father and the Son or the Word, a slave doing all the hard work and getting little worship for it. Today it is still seldom addressed in Christian devotion, but perhaps that is because it was so badly treated that it was not too diligent in its tasks. It was not too good, for example, at making the holy book of Christianity infallible.
The Holy Ghost was the Holy Breath which, in the Hindu traditions, moved on the face of the waters at creation, and imparted vitality into everything created. A similar conception appears in the scriptures. In Psalms 33:6 the Word of the Lord made the heavens, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. The Brahminical conception of creation by the Divine Breath, the Holy Ghost, which was breathed into Adam to make him a living soul. The Prana or principle of life of the Hindus is the breath of life by which the Brahma, the Creator, animates the clay to make man a living soul.
Holy Ghost, Holy Breath and Holy Wind were equivalent terms for the sigh from the mouth of the Supreme God, as laid down in pagan traditions. The Holy Wind is suggested by “the mighty rushing wind from heaven”, which filled the house on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:2). The Holy Wind is an accepted term for the Holy Ghost in ancient religions. The doxology, reported by a missionary, in the religious service of the Syrian church runs thus:
Praise to the Holy Spiritual Wind, which is the Holy Ghost;
Praise to the three persons which are one true God.
The Hebrew “ruh elohim”, translated “spirit of God” (Gen 1:2) in our version, is literally, “wind of the Gods”. The word “pneuma”, of the Greek New Testament, is sometimes translated “ghost” and sometimes “wind”, as suited the fancy of the translators. In John 3:5, the word is “spirit”, in 3:8, both “wind” and “spirit”, and, in Luke 1:35, the term is “Holy Ghost”—all translated from the same word. In the Greek Testament the word “pneuma” is used for “spirit”, “Holy Ghost”, “breath” and “wind” so that, in the Christian Scriptures, they are synonymous. An unwarranted license has been assumed by translators in rendering the same word different ways.
The Holy Ghost appears also as “a tongue of fire”, which sat upon each of the apostles in Acts 2:3. Buddha, an incarnate God of the Hindus over two thousand years ago, is often seen with a glory or tongue of fire upon his head. The visible form of the Holy Ghost as fire was accepted among the Buddhists, Druids and Etrurians. The Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit when visible, was in the form of fire or a bird and was always accompanied with wisdom and power. The Hindus, Persians and Chaldeans made offerings to fire, emblem of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit as the solar fire.
Holy men of God, like some of the prophets, are considered inspired by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21; Acts 28:25). The ancient Celts were moved by the Holy Ghost and also claimed that their Salic laws (seventy-two in number) were inspired by the “Salo Ghost” or Holy Ghost, known also as “the Wisdom of the Spirit”, or the “Voice of the Spirit”.
The Holy Ghost imparted by “the laying on of hands” is also an ancient custom. By the putting hands on the head of the candidate, the Celts conveyed the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.
Baptism by or into the Holy Ghost accompanied with fire (Mt 3:2) is also traceable to a very ancient period. The Tuscans, or Etrurians, baptized with fire, wind (ghost) and water. Baptism into the first member of the Trinity, the Father, was with fire—baptism into the second member of the Trinity, the Word, was with water—baptism into the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, was with breath, gas, gast, ghost, wind, or spirit. In ancient countries, the child was taken to the priest, who named him before the sacred fire. Then he was sprinkled with holy water from a vessel made of the sacred tree known as the Holme. To impart the Holy Ghost by breathing (John 20:22), the priest blew his breath upon the child to transfer the Holy Ghost thus baptising the child by air, spiritus sanctus or ghost. The practice of breathing in or upon was quite common among the ancient heathen.
The Holy Ghost as the agent in divine conception, or the procreation of other Gods. Jesus is said to have been conceived by the Holy Ghost (Mt 1:18), and we find similar claims of divine procreation via the Holy Ghost in the old religions. In the Hindu mythos, Sakya was conceived by the Holy Ghost Nara-an.
Sesostris of Egypt, according to Manetho, asked the oracle:
Tell me, O thou strong in fire! who before me could subjugate all things, and who shall after me?
The oracle rebuked him, saying:
First God, then the Word, and with them the Spirit.
And Plutarch, in his Life of Numa, confirms that the incarnation of the Holy Spirit was known both to the ancient Romans and Egyptians. The doctrine was nearly universal.
The Origin of the Holy Ghost Superstition
The origin of the tradition of the Holy Ghost is easily traced to the Brahminical trifold conception of God. First is the god of power or might, Brahma or Brahm, the Father, second is the god of creation, the Word, answering to John’s creative Word (John 1:3), third is the god of generation and regeneration, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. Under the Brahminical theocracy, the Holy Ghost was the living, vital, active, life-imparting agent.
The Holy Ghost in the Christian Scripture is the agent of Christ’s conception, because, as Matthew declares, he was conceived by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost was also the regenerating agent at his baptism, although Luke, who relates it, does not say why the Holy Spirit in the form of a bird, alighted and sat upon his head. The reason is, nevertheless, fully disclosed in the older mythical religions. Christians claim baptism imparts a new spiritual life—they are “born again”. This new spirit appeared as a dove or a pigeon.
The spirit was originally female so that the Trinity consisted of two masculine principles and a feminine one, the latter being the procreative or regenerative principle. At the imposition of Patriarchy the sex of the Holy Ghost altered from female to neuter.
The primary windy idea of the Holy Ghost is traceable to that early period of society when the untutored people of the earth in their ignorance of nature easily believed that movement signified the passage of a god.
The Buddhists had their god Vasus, who manifested himself as fire, wind, storms, gas, ghosts, gusts, and the breath, thus being nearly a counterpart of the Christian Holy Ghost. This god sprang from the supreme, primordial God, who was to Brahmins and Buddhists a fine, spiritual substance—aura, anima, wind, ether, igneous fluid, or electrical fire or fire from the sun, giving rise to “baptism by fire”. The third member of the Trinity, subsequently seems to have arisen from this being and had the same properties.
The Unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost
What was a sin against the Holy Ghost and why was it unpardonable? It was refusing to allow the Holy Ghost to effect the second birth. Since baptism by whatever means into the Holy Ghost was the only means of redeeming sins against the Father or the Son, the refusal or prevention of baptism meant there could be no forgiveness. It was the only route so could not be avoided if sin was to be pardoned. An offence’ committed against the third limb of the Godhead barred the door to forgiveness, in this life or that to come. To sin against the Holy Ghost was to block the path by which the door of heaven was to be reached.
