This article seems to describe the ancient history in a logical way:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap02.htm
Firstly, then, we have to show that human sacrifices were offered to the strange gods of the heathen in Abraham's day; more particularly in Egypt...
To substantiate this point we shall make but one quotation, as its author mentions so many other historians, ancient and modern, as his authorities, that in quoting it we call upon them to become our witnesses also. It is taken from Dissertation II, Whiston's Josephus, and is as follows: "It is evident from Sanchoniatho, Manetho, Pausanias, Diodorus, Siculus, Philo, Plutarch and Porphyry, that such [human] sacrifices were frequent both in Phoenicia and Egypt, and that long before the days of Abraham, as Sir John Marsham and Bishop Cumberland have fully proved: nay, that in other places (though not in Egypt) this cruel practice continued long after Abraham."
See:
http://books.google.com/books?id=v9LfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=Dissertation+II,+Whiston%27s+Josephus&source=bl&ots=qdAOwtXWBh&sig=8K_8SoSaRsR5dBrkd4a4ZP8hn0A&sa=X&ei=-QkzUPb7LMTmiwKd24D4CA&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAjgU#v=onepage&q=It%20is%20evident%20from%20Sanchoniatho&f=false
(Bottom of page 33)
We will first turn to the Book of Judith, in the Apocrypha (chap, v, verses 6 to 9). It is there represented that when the invading hosts of the king of Nineveh were approaching the land of Israel, the commanding general made some inquiries with regard to the history of its people. Then Achior, the captain of all the sons of Ammon, in answer to his inquiries, replied: "This people are descended of the Chaldeans, and they sojourned heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers which were in the land of Chaldea. For they left the way of their ancestors, and worshiped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew, so they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia and sojourned there many days."
See:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=KjvJudi.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=5&division=div1
But the question is forever set at rest by the words of a greater than Achior. Joshua, the valiant, God-fearing leader of Israel, shortly before his death, gathered the people together and rehearsed in their hearing the great things the Lord had beforetime done for them. It is written that at this time
Joshua, chap, 24, v. 2, 3.
"Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served other Gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other-side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed." And again,
Joshua, xxiv, v. 14, 15
"Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose ye this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
...we can show from the "Antiquities" of Josephus that he was maltreated for that cause. This historian, after referring to the doctrines taught by Abraham, regarding God, writes, "for which doctrines, when the Chaldeans and other people of Mesopotamia raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country; and at the command and by the assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan."
See:
http://www.godrules.net/library/flavius/flaviusb1c7.htm
(Why would people in those days reject the true God? Why were they so violent? They must have been misled by the Devil.)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap03.htm
PAUL, the Apostle, in his epistle to the Galatians, writes: "And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."
The record of the covenant made by the Almighty contained in the Book of Genesis, conveys no intimation that the promise that in Abraham all the families of the earth should be blessed, was in any way connected with the preaching of the Gospel; we must, therefore, conclude that the Apostle quoted from some other authority, or that the Book of Genesis, as handed down to us in the Bible, has been mutilated or abridged. It is quite possible that both views are correct. Paul had unquestionably other sources of information with regard to God's dealings with the Father of the Faithful, than those possessed by modern Christendom; it is also exceedingly probable that the early Scriptures have not been handed down to us in their entirety.
We would here ask, what salvation could be brought to the heathen, how could they be justified through faith by the preaching of the Gospel to Abraham, if power and authority were not given him to preach its glad tidings? And again, how could they be benefited thereby if he did not avail himself of the privilege thus given of becoming a preacher of righteousness to his fellow man? Furthermore, we ask, is it reasonable to suppose that he, who was to be father of that race in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed by the preaching of God's word, would not himself be a type of what such messengers of salvation should be? Is it supposable he would hold his peace and leave the work of regeneration entirely to his posterity, when it was promised that through the eternal truths revealed to him all mankind should regain the presence of their God?
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap04.htm
Josephus, in narrating this portion of Abraham's history--being only partially acquainted with the facts of the case from the authorities at his disposal--tell us that Abraham went down into Egypt to avoid the famine in Canaan, and to "become an auditor of their priests, and to know what they said concerning the gods; designing either to follow them if they had better notions than he, or to convert them into a better way if his own notions proved the truest."
See: Josephus, Antiquities, Book 1, chap. viii.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/ant-1.htm
After his arrival in Egypt, and the circumstances arising out of the attempt of Pharaoh to add Sarah to the number of his wives, the outcome of which placed the monarch under obligations to the patriarch, Josephus states that "Pharaoh gave Abraham leave to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians, from which conversation his virtue and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had been before. For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another's sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on that account, Abraham conferred with each of them, and, confuting the reasonings they made use of, every one for his own practices, he demonstrated that such reasonings were vain and void of truth; whereupon he was admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed upon any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him."
See: Josephus, Antiquities, Book 1, chap. viii.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/ant-1.htm
In another place the Jewish historian states, "He (Abraham) was a person of great sagacity, both for understanding all things, and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions; for which reason he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and to change the opinion all men happened then to have concerning God."
From Egypt we will turn to Persia, and from the writings of various modern authors adduce testimony to prove that Abraham's power as a religious teacher was felt, known and recognized in the faith and creed of that nation.
See:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-fC1npmqi_MC&pg=PA297&lpg=PA297&dq=Ethnic+Inspiration,+by+Mr.+Goodsir,+pages+73+and+80.&source=bl&ots=TFiO_uKnEH&sig=cyiv4jNCxMh1xl8WJALgN54JmRs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GK82UJ27CYiEiwLE3oDwBQ&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Ethnic%20Inspiration%2C%20by%20Mr.%20Goodsir%2C%20pages%2073%20and%2080.&f=false
Ethnic Inspiration, by Mr. Goodsir, pages 73 and 80, In the sacred book of the ancient Persians and modern Parsees-- the Zend Avista--"it is declared that the religion taught in it was received from Abraham; and according to Hyde, who supports his statements by quotations and references, this was believed by leading Arabian writers not only of Persian Magianism but of Indian Brahmanism." The same writer remarks: "The claims of Magianism to have been influenced by the revelations made to Abraham are far from being discountenanced by the laws of historical probability. For the war waged so successfully by Abraham in behalf of his kinsman, Lot, against the five kings, among whom was the king of Elam [i.e., Persia], is of itself a sufficient proof that the Father of the Faithful, Abraham, the Hebrew from Ur of the Chaldees, must have been as well known to the eastern kingdoms as Moses was in after times."
It is generally admitted that in the days of Abraham the forefathers of the Persians and Brahmins were one people, inhabiting one region of country. It is supposed that the ancestors of the latter race moved to India from 1500 to 1300 years B. C. That these two races are of common descent is urged from the close relationship existing between the Sanskrit, the language of the Brahmins, and the Zend or Persian; it is also said that the "remarkable identity between the Brahminical and Persian mythologies indicates, unerringly, the original union of the two." It may also be noticed that Hitzig, in his "Geschichte dcs Volkes Israel," reasons from the identity of certain practices observed by Abraham and the patriarchs of Israel on the one hand, and by Brahminical Hindoos on the other, that a community of some kind once existed between these people.
The two nations being thus admitted, by authors of research, to have been one people in Abraham's time, it is supposable that the Brahmin as well as the Persian branch of the family would exhibit some traces of Abraham's ministry. On this point it has been written "Abraham's influence extended to Bactria, and the most complete proof at once of its spread, and the spread with it of the name and renown of Abraham, is contained in the language and name of the Brahminical Hindoos."
Osborn's "Religions of the World," "The name Brahma signifies he who multiplies; the name Abraham likewise means the father of a multitude. (Arabic, Rahama, a multitude. Genesis xxii, 5.) The wife of Brahma was named Savitree. The wife of Abraham was named Sarai or Sarah."
See:
http://books.google.com/books?id=miEsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=%22These+coincidences+appear+to+us+to+be+well+deserving+of+attention%22&source=bl&ots=oQQXBKh1dW&sig=-QAXZXYuQxj5vWt3007I7R7U_qM&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22These%20coincidences%20appear%20to%20us%20to%20be%20well%20deserving%20of%20attention%22&f=false
Mr. Goodsir, remarking on this last extract, writes: "These coincidences appear to us to be well deserving of attention, though we are not aware that they have ever before been noticed. We leave them and the whole question of the identity of Brahma and Abraham to the judgment of our readers, merely observing, in conclusion, that having found Adam and Noah and Ham to have been the father-gods of Egyptian mythology, and Japhet the father-god of that of Greece, there is abundant analogy as well as probability in our inference that the father-god of the Indian superstition was Abraham."
Admitting the truth of the following extract from the writings of Nicolaus of Damascus, referred to by Josephus, it is very easy to understand when and how Abraham obtained his great influence in Persia; and we know of no conflicting testimony to render the statements unworthy of our consideration. He writes, in the fourth book of his history: "Abram reigned in Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldees; but after a long time he got him up and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea. * * * Now the name of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus, and there is shewed a village named from him, the habitation of Abraham."
We now come to the consideration of the traces, ofttimes scarcely discernable, found in the pagan religions of the ancient nations of the eastern continent, of a time when the worship of the true God was taught and understood in their midst, for we fully believe that having made of one blood all the nations of the earth, "God guided and ruled over pagan nations in a manner the same in kind, though much modified in degree, as in the case of the chosen people; and for the same great final end." Let it not be supposed, in the following pages, that we desire to extenuate the sinfulness, or to palliate the foulness of idolatrous, cruel, unclean and licentious paganism in any of its branches. Our desire is to exalt the goodness of God, as well as to show that under all the vileness, the indecency, the lust and cruelty of many of the forms of ancient paganism, could be found a sub-stratum of pure revealed truth, testifying to us that at some period the fathers of these peoples held intercourse with the servants of the true God, but had fallen away from the principles of righteousness aforetime taught them, and after their own peculiar ways and to suit their own peculiar notions and desires, had heaped to themselves gods and demons, creeds and rites, ceremonies and mysteries, oracles and auguries, differing in different nations according to the force of circumstances and the direction given to them by master minds.
As a proof of the truth of our position, we have but to refer to the fact that it has been demonstrated that the further we go back through the centuries to the primeval days succeeding the dispersion of mankind at the Tower of Babel, the more frequent and more noticeable are the traces of pure religious truth found intermingled with the follies and vagueries of man-made religions. As an example of this, it is recounted by Levy, the Roman historian, that certain sacred books having been found at the burying place of Numa, the great religious legislator of early Rome, they were burned because they were not suited to the times in which they were discovered, when Rome had added scores of gods to its Pantheon, though they were considered suited to the early era in which they were written, when Numa forbade images and their worship as well as the offering of human sacrifices.
It is not difficult for those who believe in the Bible as it is written, to understand that immediately after the flood there was but one form of faith upon the earth, and that the true one. Noah was a preacher of righteousness both before and after the deluge, and because of their obedience to God's laws, he and his family were saved from the universal destruction that came upon the wicked. But their descendants, in an early day, began to depart from the purity of the truths that had saved "the fathers," and a knowledge of the forms of iniquity that existed amongst the antediluvians was in some manner conveyed to them, and incorporated in their debased new systems of worship. Noah, Melchizedek and others battled with but partial success against these growing infamies, and Abraham was especially called of the Lord to usher in a new dispensation. We have seen, in part, how he fulfilled this call; we shall now refer to some Gospel ideas that for many centuries afterwards were found incorporated amongst the filth and rubbish of paganism, some in Egypt, some in Persia, some in Chaldea, some in Greece, Rome and other nations. From this almost universal admixture of the true and the false it is evident that there was some primeval source from which the ancient gentile nations drew that which was good and true in their religions.
(That might be a good explanation of where these religions came from - iniquity that existed amongst the antediluvians. What kind of debased system or worship did they perform? Human sacrifices? Idolatry? Any others? Who decided to build the first temple?)
In our researches into the mythology of these peoples we find, amongst
others, the following Gospel ideas:
The belief in the existence of one great father God.
The prophecy and expectation of the coming of a Son of God in the
flesh.
A reverence for Adam as the great prince of his race, in some nations,
extended to his worship as the father of the terrestrial gods.
The belief in a resurrection, and in future rewards and punishments.
The necessity of faith in the gods, and under certain very remarkable
circumstances, to be hereafter noticed, of repentance and baptism.
The administration of washings and anointings.
Traditions, more or less perfect, of the great war in heaven when
Lucifer and his angels were cast down upon the earth.
The belief in good and bad angels, ministers of the will of heaven.
A belief in the eternity of matter, and
The almost universal practice of sacrifice.
To give strength to the above assertions we shall now appeal to
a number of well-known authors.
The Rev. Mr. Goodsir, in his work on Ethnic Inspiration, writes:
"The principles of mythology enable us to discern the true order in which the various
erroneous and morbid developments of human belief arose. It proves both that monotheism--the
knowledge of the true God, preceded the various forms of polytheism, and especially
the worship of the heavenly bodies; and that the worship of dead men preceded other
forms of false or idolatrous worship; and the same facts which show that the worship
of dead men was the first step in false religion, prove at the same time the original
grafting of this on the belief of a heavenly Creator and Father. Were there no other
than the single case of Egypt, as explained from its language, hieroglyphics and
monuments, by Mr. Os-born, it would place the matter beyond all doubt, so clear
and well-supported is that case. Adam and Eve, Noah and Tamer, Ham, Mizraim[7]
and Phut were all deified there, while the supreme God was incontrovertibly known;
and the sun was a symbol and the supposed abode of Adam. There is reason to
believe that the state of things in Chaldea and Babylon was substantially the same
as this."
(It looks like people in the old days liked to worship their ancestors (dead men) and used symbols of heavenly bodies to represent them. That's how the various gods were created.)
(It looks like people in the old days liked to worship their ancestors (dead men) and used symbols of heavenly bodies to represent them. That's how the various gods were created.)
To this we may append the remark that the Egyptians appear to have
recognized the partial truth that there be "that are called gods, whether in heaven
or on earth, as there be gods many and lords many," but were ignorant of the corollary,
"but to us there is but one God the Father." (1 Corinthians, viii, v. 5, 6.)
It must be evident from the light thown on the early history of
the world, more especially of Egypt, by the Book of Abraham, that under the almost
universally existing form of patriarchal government that "the fathers" were not
only High Priests unto God by right of their "fatherhood," but also the kings of
the earth by that same right,[8] and it was 0ne
of the easiest things in the world for the descendants of these men, who ruled by
right divine, to not only reverence them as ministers of heaven's will in all things,
temporal and spiritual, but also to deify and afterwards worship them. Indeed in
the case of most of these holy patriarchs it was but a very small step in advance
of their true position in relation to the sons of men; for "He called them Gods
unto whom the word of God came, and the scriptures cannot be broken." (John, x,
35.)
(It looks like the various gods different nations worshiped those days were the patriarchs.)
(It looks like the various gods different nations worshiped those days were the patriarchs.)
We next appeal to Mr. Osborn, author of "The Religions of the World."
In writing of the Egyptian mythology, he states: "This most ancient mythology, as
described by authors who lived before the Christian era, and as set forth on the
walls of the temples in which its ritual or worship was performed, was taught to
the initiated and concealed from the vulgar, that God created all things at the
first by the primary emanation from himself, his firstborn, who was the author and
giver of all knowledge in heaven and on earth, being at the same time the wisdom
and the word of God. The birth of this all-powerful being, his manifestation as
an infant, his nurture and education through all the succeeding periods of childhood
and of boyhood, constituted the grand mystery of the entire system." So convinced
were the priests of this people of the coming of a Son of God, that they had chambers
prepared in their temples for his nativity.
Another quotation from Mr. Osborn will, we trust, make the matter
yet clearer to our readers. He says: "The founders of the nation knew not only of
Ham and Mizriam, but of various men and women contemporary with, them, even of our
first parents, Adam and Eve, as well as of our second progenitors, Noah and his
wife Tamer. Adam has thus been handed down to us as Athom, the guide or governor
of the sun; Eve as Hathor, who presided over the moon; Noah as Nuh, who presided
over the Nile; while Ham, Mizraim, Phut, Neveth, or Neith, the wife of Ham, and
others, occupied singular and sometimes multiform positions and offices in the Egyptian
Pantheon."[9]
We will now leave modern writers, and draw attention to that wonderful
papyrus, the Ancient Egyptian Ritual or Book of the Dead, and from its hieroglyphics
show the relation in which Adam stood in their mythology, reminding our readers
that the abode of the great father of humanity was supposed by them to be the sun,
and that the chief seat of his worship was at Heliopolis, the city of the sun, the
On of the Scriptures, Aseniath, a daughter of one of whose priests was married to
Joseph, the son of Jacob.
Our extracts are necessarily brief, and simply intended to prove
the trustworthiness of the quotations already made.
In the fifteenth chapter it is written :
" Glory be to Athom, setting from the gate of life,
"When his colors glow in the western gate of the horizon,
"Hail to thee setting from the land of life,
"Thou father of the Gods."
Again, (chapter xvii,) Adam is represented as saying:
"I am the great God, creating myself;
"I am the great Phoenix which is in On;
"I am the creator of beings and existences."
In another place it proclaims:
"Glory be to thee, O Sun; glory be to thee, O Athom,
"When thou goest down, perfect, crowned and glorious."
Adam is also called "the old man whose palace is at On," the "God
alone in the firmament," "Father Athom," "Righteous Athom," and much more. Probably
were we better versed in the mysteries of its hieroglyphics and idioms, the translation
of this wonderful testimony to the belief of the ancients in the immortality of
the soul, which this ritual is, would be yet plainer and more instructive.
From the Egyptians we will turn to the Persians, the people next
most likely to show traces in their religion of the influence left by the preaching
of the Gospel in patriarchal days. Mr. Hyde, in his "Religion of the Ancient Persians,"
points out how that Magianism, as set forth in its sacred books, taught that the
human race sprang from a single pair; that it bore testimony to the occurrence of
the flood; that it mentions Noah and his sons; that as far as Abraham is concerned,
it declares him to have been its own author; and that it makes mention also of Moses.
Moreover, it contains predictions respecting the appearance on earth of a Savior,
who would ultimately overthrow the kingdom of darkness and make supreme and universal
the kingdom of light and of God. It also taught the existence of good and of bad
angels, also a resurrection of the dead.
The religions of ancient Greece and Rome were, to a very great extent,
originally drawn from those of Egypt, Persia and Phoenicia. Many traces of Gospel
principles can be found in them, hidden concealed under the mass of filth and abomination
that in later ages disgraced the religions of the kingdoms of brass and iron. Still,
in all these nations it is admitted that "so far from atheism and godless irreligion
being the rule, belief in the Divine, however mistaken, and worship of the Divine,
however superstitious, everywhere prevailed." With regard to special Gospel ideas
prevailing in all these nations, it has been remarked that "baptism was as completely
a portion of the primeval ceremonial worship as was the tenet of immortality and
resurrection a portion of the primeval creed." It is also noticeable that all the
Greek schools of philosophy taught the doctrine of the eternity of matter, and not
only had these races a knowledge of things that occurred in antediluvian days, but
in their different, absurd ways they recounted the history of the war in heaven
when Lucifer was cast out. Those curious on this point can read their accounts of
the war between the Titians and Heaven, and of the giants against Jupiter.
Late discoveries at Nineveh have demonstrated that the Chaldeans
had also a very distinct tradition of this pre-Adamite war, as many particulars
relating thereto have been found transcribed on the earthen tiles exhumed from the
mounds where that once mighty city is supposed to have stood. These tablets having
been translated by Mr. Geo. Smith, of the British Museum, prove to be an account
of the war in heaven before the creation of this earth, of the fall of man, of the
flood, the building of the tower of Babel, etc. The similarity between the statements
on these cuneiform records and the Bible account of the same events is very remarkable
and interesting, while at the same time they prove how wide spread in ancient times
was the knowledge of God's dealings with humanity.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap06.htm
Josephus specifically states that "that calamity happened in the six hundredth year of Noah's government." (Josephus, book 1, chap. 3.) In fact Josephus gives a list of the antediluvian monarchs, or patriarchs, as they are termed in the Bible,
The following is Josephus' statement with regard to this matter: (Josephus, book 1, chap. 3.)
"Seth was born when Adam was in his 230th year, who lived 930 years.
Seth begat Enoch in his 205th year, who, when he lived 912 years, delivered the
government to Canaan, his son, whom he had at his 119th year. He lived 905 years.
Canaan, when he had lived 910 years, had his son Mahalaleel, who was born in his
170th year. This Mahalaleel, having lived 895 years, died, leaving his son Jared,
whom he begat when he was at his 165th year. He lived 962 years and then his son
Enoch succeeded him, who was born when his father was 162 years old. Now he, when
he had lived 365 years, departed and went to God, whence it is that they have not
written down his death. Now Methuselah, the son of Enoch, who was born to him when
he was 165 years old, had Lamech for his son, when he was 187 years of age, to whom
he delivered the government when he had retained it 969 years. Now Lamech, when
he had governed 777 years, appointed Noah, his son, to be the ruler of the people,
who was born to Lamech when he was 182 years old, and retained the government 950
years."
*******************************************************************
We here draw attention to a somewhat remarkable coincidence. It
is that the length of the reigns of these patriarchs, as given by Josephus, agrees,
with one exception, we believe, with the length of their lives according to Bible
chronology, but what makes this feature more remarkable is that Josephus does exactly
the same thing as the Chinese do in their antediluvian chronology. "The Chinese
account speaks of ten dynasties of superior beings, who ruled in their country 1,000
years each before the sky fell on the earth (i.e. the flood). It is not hard
to see that this is only a different and a singular manner of relating the same
facts. * * * Moses informs us that each of these ten generations did extend near
a thousand years, but he let us know that a son and his father walked much of their
earthly race together. The journey of each was long, but it was a simultaneous travel."
[1]
...the early history of the first nations that came into being after the flood, for instance, the Egyptian, the Chaldean, and the Chinese. Scientists and religionists have been wrangling for scores of years with regard to the chronology of these nations, both parties, as a rule, seeming to take it for granted that these chronological records should stop at the flood, presumedly for the reason that all mankind but one family of eight were then destroyed. ...when we take into consideration the fact that those who were saved were the royal family--the king and queen, with their three sons and the princesses, their wives--and that this king (Noah) ruled after as well as before the flood, it remains no longer a wonder how these nations traced their existence to years long anterior to that dire calamity. To them it was a terrible disaster in the history of their nation, nothing more; there was no break in the royal descent, the same king reigned before and after it took place, the same dynasty remained in power, his son succeeded to the throne; the royal records were preserved, and the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Chinese alike with natural national pride all claimed the sovereigns who ruled from Adam to Noah as the kings of their peculiar nation. Their records were like three converging lines, centering at Noah, and from him continuing backward in one and the same straight line to Adam. To illustrate: let us suppose a case. We will imagine that a vast desolation sweeps over the empire of Germany. The king and the three princes, with their families, alone are saved from its fatal horrors. By and by, these three princes establish thrones of their own, say, one in Prussia, one in Pomerania, and one in Hanover. Would the national historians of future ages, when these three kingdoms had become great and populous, stop in their respective national histories at the date that this overwhelming catastrophe occurred? Would it not be much more reasonable to conclude that they would accumulate the histories of this and former epochs and continue their accounts through this calamity to the earliest days their records would reach. We think so, and in this way we discover an easy and reasonable solution to the difficulties that beset Chinese and Egyptian chronology, and are able to account for the interminable lists of kings that grace their annals. In fact, so far as Egypt is concerned, it had no consecutive chronology. This truth is now admitted by the most learned in that branch of science. But they undoubtedly carried their records, in a jumbled up way, back beyond the flood, ... and in postdiluvian days they, in vanity, inserted the names of scores of princes who reigned contemporaneously in various parts of the Valley of the Nile. Admit these two facts, and the solution is found to the mysteries of Egyptian chronology, what they had of it. Again, why should we permit the descendants of Shem, as in the case of the Hebrews, to monopolize their antediluvian progenitors. These men were the fathers of all mankind, and all had equal right to claim them as their own.
Josephus writes (Antiquities, book 1, chap, viii,) that when Pharaoh discovered that the woman, Sarah, whom he desired to take into his household, was the wife of Abraham, he made, as an excuse for his action, that believing her to be the patriarch's sister he wished to marry her, from his desire to be related to so distinguished a personage as Abraham. This could not be irony; Pharaoh was not in a condition to be ironical with his guest. It must have been an excuse that bore upon its face the probability of truth, and one that would be accepted as genuine by the powerful visitor from Canaan. Had it been otherwise, it would have been adding insult to injury, and instead of Abraham remaining in Egypt to become a teacher to its people, we should probably learn that in anger he returned to his own land.
Our readers will probably recollect that we have already drawn attention to a statement of Josephus, that at the time the patriarch visited Egypt, the people of that country despised each other's sacred rites, and were very angry one with another on that account; further, that Abraham proved to them that their various reasonings were vain and void of truth. Modern research has shown that Abraham did more than this. It appears that somewhat more than one hundred years before Abraham's advent into Egypt, one of its monarchs--Mencheres--attempted to establish the worship of Osiris over all Egypt. As a result, a great religious war ensued, which continued for a century. The history of the country at this time becomes involved and obscure in the highest degree, but one fact is absolutely certain, and that is, that this civil war was fierce, long continued and with varying success. A late British historical text book states that in the year 1984 B. C. (according to the best chronology, which is, however, far from satisfactory)[2] Abraham visited and aided Achthoes [Pharaoh] in forming a treaty with his rival to terminate the religious war.
About this time, as near as can be told, a great change was effected in the religion of the Egyptians, which we ascribe to the preaching, in their midst, of the Gospel, by the Father of the Faithful. It appears from Herodotus, that according to the story of the idolatrous Egyptian priests of his day, that when Cheops ascended the throne he "closed the temples of the false gods, and prohibited their sacrifices"[3] Cheops is said to have reigned fifty years, and was succeeded by his brother Chepren, who also kept the temples closed. In the succeeding reign the temples were again opened, and the people returned to their old modes of worship. So hated were these two sovereigns by the heathen dwellers by the Nile, of later years, that Herodotus states that they would not even mention their names, Mr. John Taylor, author of "The Great Pyramid; why was it built and who built it?" from various evidences brought to his notice, infers that these kings "might have been pre-eminently good, or were at all events of different religious faith" from those who told the story to Herodotus. Putting the various facts before stated together, that Abraham taught holy principles to the Egyptians, that his teachings so wrought upon them that they brought to a close a civil war of one hundred years' duration, and that near this time the idolatrous temples were closed, all forming parts of one harmonious whole, we are irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that these changes were brought about by the proclamation of the Gospel; more especially are we led thereto by the hatred shown to the kings who accepted this message and carried out these reforms, by the worshipers of Osiris in succeeding generations. It so much resembles the course pursued by others in like circumstances in other lands and at other times. Cheops is usually credited with being the builder of the great pyramid, and to that mighty structure we shall by and by appeal for testimony to prove that whoever its builders were, they were acqainted with the sublime system of astronomy revealed by Jehovah to Abraham, with instructions to teach it to the Egyptians.
(If the above is true, and the Great Pyramid was built during Cheops' reign, it would have been built for a good cause and not evil. The Egyptians already had temples of false gods before Abraham went to Egypt. Where did they get the ideas of the temples from? Did they created themselves? When was the first temple built? For what purpose?)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap07.htm
Rev. Mr. Mackay, referring to some of the astronomical truths known to the ancient inhabitants of the land of the Pharaohs, states that he believes they were "revealed to man, ages and generations before science had any existence.
Mr. Wm. Osborn, in a sketch of the history of ancient Egypt, remarks: "According to Moses, moreover, the age that produced by far the most remarkable of those monuments (the pyramids) was one in which the Almighty had frequent and familiar intercourse with man, as in the case of the patriarchs, Abraham, Melchizedek and Job; while the monument itself evinces innumerable evidences of a knowledge and wisdom to which unaided humanity has nowhere ever attained."
Rev. Mr. Goodsir, from the demonstration of facts akin to the foregoing, remarks: "The conclusion that some men in primeval times were taught by God, for important religious and moral purposes, scientific truths which modern men of science are only now discovering, is maintained on the strength of two lines of evidence--first, the freedom of scripture rightly interpreted from scientific error, and from the religious and moral errors witnessed among the pagans as the result of ignorance and errors in science: and second, the possession by primeval man of such scientific knowledge as we are only now reaching, as demonstrated by the great pyramid. Certain things render it extremely probable that this knowledge was imparted to the Ethnics [the gentiles] (who employed it in constructing the great pyramid) by servants of God, whom He had taught; and though ultimately corrupted and obscured by the pagans, still it is highly probable that, evincing its truth even from the midst of enveloping error, this scientific knowledge continued to stimulate the Egyptian, and afterwards the Greek, mind to scientific inquiry. * * * For as there is the clearest evidence that a revelation of religious truth existed in primeval times, and continued to benefit men, even when it became more or less corrupted, so is there as clear evidence that men were primevally instructed in the most important cosmologic and scientific truths. * * * The extreme probability is that a true scientific conception of the Kosmos in general would be at first conveyed to man directly by God, to guard his intelligent and highly-favored child from nature worship."
Josephus (book 1, chapter viii,) states that Abraham "communicated to them (the Egyptians) arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy, for before Abraham came into Egypt they were unacquainted with those parts of learning, for that science came by the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from them to the Greeks also."
The British text book already referred to, entitled "Facts and Dates," published in 1870 by the well-known firm of Wm. Blackwood & Sons, of Edinburgh (we are particular in giving details, to show that it proceeds from a reliable and highly respectable firm), in its history of ancient Egypt, gives the following:
"B.C. 1980. Abraham teaches the king of Egypt the true chronology, after which the inscriptions bear the name of the year and month."
(If the construction started at 2470 BC, it would be before Abraham taught the Egyptians arithmetic and astronomy. Abraham lived from 1976 BC - 1801 BC. I think the dates are approximates. If Abraham taught the king of Egypt in BC 1980 according to the text book, how could he not be born until 1976 BC (Wikipedia). If Josephus and the British text book were correct, then the Great Pyramid would have been built after Abraham taught the Egyptians or by either Enoch or the fallen angels before the flood because the Egyptians didn't have such knowledge before Abraham came into Egypt and there was no where mentioned the pyramids in Egyptian history. Could 2470 BC be correct?)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap08.htm
...the early history of the first nations that came into being after the flood, for instance, the Egyptian, the Chaldean, and the Chinese. Scientists and religionists have been wrangling for scores of years with regard to the chronology of these nations, both parties, as a rule, seeming to take it for granted that these chronological records should stop at the flood, presumedly for the reason that all mankind but one family of eight were then destroyed. ...when we take into consideration the fact that those who were saved were the royal family--the king and queen, with their three sons and the princesses, their wives--and that this king (Noah) ruled after as well as before the flood, it remains no longer a wonder how these nations traced their existence to years long anterior to that dire calamity. To them it was a terrible disaster in the history of their nation, nothing more; there was no break in the royal descent, the same king reigned before and after it took place, the same dynasty remained in power, his son succeeded to the throne; the royal records were preserved, and the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Chinese alike with natural national pride all claimed the sovereigns who ruled from Adam to Noah as the kings of their peculiar nation. Their records were like three converging lines, centering at Noah, and from him continuing backward in one and the same straight line to Adam. To illustrate: let us suppose a case. We will imagine that a vast desolation sweeps over the empire of Germany. The king and the three princes, with their families, alone are saved from its fatal horrors. By and by, these three princes establish thrones of their own, say, one in Prussia, one in Pomerania, and one in Hanover. Would the national historians of future ages, when these three kingdoms had become great and populous, stop in their respective national histories at the date that this overwhelming catastrophe occurred? Would it not be much more reasonable to conclude that they would accumulate the histories of this and former epochs and continue their accounts through this calamity to the earliest days their records would reach. We think so, and in this way we discover an easy and reasonable solution to the difficulties that beset Chinese and Egyptian chronology, and are able to account for the interminable lists of kings that grace their annals. In fact, so far as Egypt is concerned, it had no consecutive chronology. This truth is now admitted by the most learned in that branch of science. But they undoubtedly carried their records, in a jumbled up way, back beyond the flood, ... and in postdiluvian days they, in vanity, inserted the names of scores of princes who reigned contemporaneously in various parts of the Valley of the Nile. Admit these two facts, and the solution is found to the mysteries of Egyptian chronology, what they had of it. Again, why should we permit the descendants of Shem, as in the case of the Hebrews, to monopolize their antediluvian progenitors. These men were the fathers of all mankind, and all had equal right to claim them as their own.
Josephus writes (Antiquities, book 1, chap, viii,) that when Pharaoh discovered that the woman, Sarah, whom he desired to take into his household, was the wife of Abraham, he made, as an excuse for his action, that believing her to be the patriarch's sister he wished to marry her, from his desire to be related to so distinguished a personage as Abraham. This could not be irony; Pharaoh was not in a condition to be ironical with his guest. It must have been an excuse that bore upon its face the probability of truth, and one that would be accepted as genuine by the powerful visitor from Canaan. Had it been otherwise, it would have been adding insult to injury, and instead of Abraham remaining in Egypt to become a teacher to its people, we should probably learn that in anger he returned to his own land.
Our readers will probably recollect that we have already drawn attention to a statement of Josephus, that at the time the patriarch visited Egypt, the people of that country despised each other's sacred rites, and were very angry one with another on that account; further, that Abraham proved to them that their various reasonings were vain and void of truth. Modern research has shown that Abraham did more than this. It appears that somewhat more than one hundred years before Abraham's advent into Egypt, one of its monarchs--Mencheres--attempted to establish the worship of Osiris over all Egypt. As a result, a great religious war ensued, which continued for a century. The history of the country at this time becomes involved and obscure in the highest degree, but one fact is absolutely certain, and that is, that this civil war was fierce, long continued and with varying success. A late British historical text book states that in the year 1984 B. C. (according to the best chronology, which is, however, far from satisfactory)[2] Abraham visited and aided Achthoes [Pharaoh] in forming a treaty with his rival to terminate the religious war.
About this time, as near as can be told, a great change was effected in the religion of the Egyptians, which we ascribe to the preaching, in their midst, of the Gospel, by the Father of the Faithful. It appears from Herodotus, that according to the story of the idolatrous Egyptian priests of his day, that when Cheops ascended the throne he "closed the temples of the false gods, and prohibited their sacrifices"[3] Cheops is said to have reigned fifty years, and was succeeded by his brother Chepren, who also kept the temples closed. In the succeeding reign the temples were again opened, and the people returned to their old modes of worship. So hated were these two sovereigns by the heathen dwellers by the Nile, of later years, that Herodotus states that they would not even mention their names, Mr. John Taylor, author of "The Great Pyramid; why was it built and who built it?" from various evidences brought to his notice, infers that these kings "might have been pre-eminently good, or were at all events of different religious faith" from those who told the story to Herodotus. Putting the various facts before stated together, that Abraham taught holy principles to the Egyptians, that his teachings so wrought upon them that they brought to a close a civil war of one hundred years' duration, and that near this time the idolatrous temples were closed, all forming parts of one harmonious whole, we are irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that these changes were brought about by the proclamation of the Gospel; more especially are we led thereto by the hatred shown to the kings who accepted this message and carried out these reforms, by the worshipers of Osiris in succeeding generations. It so much resembles the course pursued by others in like circumstances in other lands and at other times. Cheops is usually credited with being the builder of the great pyramid, and to that mighty structure we shall by and by appeal for testimony to prove that whoever its builders were, they were acqainted with the sublime system of astronomy revealed by Jehovah to Abraham, with instructions to teach it to the Egyptians.
(If the above is true, and the Great Pyramid was built during Cheops' reign, it would have been built for a good cause and not evil. The Egyptians already had temples of false gods before Abraham went to Egypt. Where did they get the ideas of the temples from? Did they created themselves? When was the first temple built? For what purpose?)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap07.htm
Rev. Mr. Mackay, referring to some of the astronomical truths known to the ancient inhabitants of the land of the Pharaohs, states that he believes they were "revealed to man, ages and generations before science had any existence.
Mr. Wm. Osborn, in a sketch of the history of ancient Egypt, remarks: "According to Moses, moreover, the age that produced by far the most remarkable of those monuments (the pyramids) was one in which the Almighty had frequent and familiar intercourse with man, as in the case of the patriarchs, Abraham, Melchizedek and Job; while the monument itself evinces innumerable evidences of a knowledge and wisdom to which unaided humanity has nowhere ever attained."
Rev. Mr. Goodsir, from the demonstration of facts akin to the foregoing, remarks: "The conclusion that some men in primeval times were taught by God, for important religious and moral purposes, scientific truths which modern men of science are only now discovering, is maintained on the strength of two lines of evidence--first, the freedom of scripture rightly interpreted from scientific error, and from the religious and moral errors witnessed among the pagans as the result of ignorance and errors in science: and second, the possession by primeval man of such scientific knowledge as we are only now reaching, as demonstrated by the great pyramid. Certain things render it extremely probable that this knowledge was imparted to the Ethnics [the gentiles] (who employed it in constructing the great pyramid) by servants of God, whom He had taught; and though ultimately corrupted and obscured by the pagans, still it is highly probable that, evincing its truth even from the midst of enveloping error, this scientific knowledge continued to stimulate the Egyptian, and afterwards the Greek, mind to scientific inquiry. * * * For as there is the clearest evidence that a revelation of religious truth existed in primeval times, and continued to benefit men, even when it became more or less corrupted, so is there as clear evidence that men were primevally instructed in the most important cosmologic and scientific truths. * * * The extreme probability is that a true scientific conception of the Kosmos in general would be at first conveyed to man directly by God, to guard his intelligent and highly-favored child from nature worship."
Josephus (book 1, chapter viii,) states that Abraham "communicated to them (the Egyptians) arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy, for before Abraham came into Egypt they were unacquainted with those parts of learning, for that science came by the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from them to the Greeks also."
The British text book already referred to, entitled "Facts and Dates," published in 1870 by the well-known firm of Wm. Blackwood & Sons, of Edinburgh (we are particular in giving details, to show that it proceeds from a reliable and highly respectable firm), in its history of ancient Egypt, gives the following:
"B.C. 1980. Abraham teaches the king of Egypt the true chronology, after which the inscriptions bear the name of the year and month."
(If the construction started at 2470 BC, it would be before Abraham taught the Egyptians arithmetic and astronomy. Abraham lived from 1976 BC - 1801 BC. I think the dates are approximates. If Abraham taught the king of Egypt in BC 1980 according to the text book, how could he not be born until 1976 BC (Wikipedia). If Josephus and the British text book were correct, then the Great Pyramid would have been built after Abraham taught the Egyptians or by either Enoch or the fallen angels before the flood because the Egyptians didn't have such knowledge before Abraham came into Egypt and there was no where mentioned the pyramids in Egyptian history. Could 2470 BC be correct?)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap08.htm
The Pharaoh, or king of Egypt, who is generally regarded as the
builder of the first pyramid, is known to secular history by the name of Cheops.
To him and his actions in closing the idolatrous temples of Egypt, we have referred
in a previous chapter, as well as to the statement of Herodotus, that the Egyptians
so detested his memory that they would not even mention his name. Hence he states,
"they commonly call the pyramids after Philition,[1]
a shepherd, who at that time fed his flocks about the place." Remarking upon the
above statement, Mr. Proctor, the celebrated astronomer, writes: "The mention of
the shepherd Philition, who fed his flocks about the place where the great Pyramid
was built, is a singular feature of Herodotus' narrative. It reads like some strange
misinterpretation of the story related to him by the Egyptian priests. It is obvious
if the word Philition did not represent a people, but a person, this person must
have been very eminent and distinguished--a shepherd king--not a mere shepherd.
Rawlinson suggests that Philitis was probably a shepherd prince from Palestine,
perhaps of Philistine descent. Prof. Smyth comes to the conclusion that some She-mite
prince, 'a contemporary of, but rather older than the patriarch Abraham,' visited
Egypt at this time and obtained such influence over the mind of Cheops as to persuade
him to erect the pyramid. According to Smyth, the prince was no other than Melchizedek,
king of Salem, and the influence he exerted was supernatural. * * * It seems tolerably
clear that certain shepherd chiefs who came into Egypt during Cheops' reign were
connected in some way with the designing of the great pyramid. It is clear also
that they were men of a different religion from the Egyptians, and persauded Cheops
to abandon the religion of his people."
If Josephus be correct, Professor Smyth's deductions regarding Melchizedek
are wrong, for the former says that the Egyptians were taught astronomy by Abraham;
without Melchizedek followed Abraham into Egypt instead of preceding him, which,
though possible, we have no account of in any of the sacred writings.
Mr. Proctor further writes: "In the first place, the history of
the pyramids shows that the erection of the first great pyramid was in all probability
either suggested to Cheops by wise men who visited Egypt from the east, or else
some important information conveyed to him by such visitors caused him to conceive
the idea of building the pyramid. In either case we may suppose, as the history
indeed suggests, that these learned men, whoever they may have been, remained in
Egypt to superintend the erection of the structure. * * * The astronomical peculiarities
which form so significant a portion of the great pyramid were probably provided
for entirely under the direction of the shepherd chiefs who had exerted so strange
an influence upon the mind of king Cheops. * * * It is certain in any case that
they [the shepherd chiefs] were opposed to idolatry; and we have thus some means
of inferring who they were or whence they came. We know that one particular branch
of one particular race in the east was characterized by a most marked hatred of
idolatry in all its forms. * * * And the Bible record shows that members of this
Chaldean family visited Egypt from time to time. They were shepherds too, which
accords with the account of Herodotus. * * * But having formed the opinion on grounds
sufficiently assured, that the strangers who visited Egypt and superintended the
building of the great pyramid were kinsmen of the patriarch Abraham, it is not very
difficult to decide what was the subject respecting which they had such exact information.
They or their parents had come from the land of the Chaldeans, and they were doubtless
learned in all the wisdom of their Chaldean kinsmen. They were masters, in fact,
of the astronomy of their day, a science for which the Chaldeans had shown, from
the earliest ages, the most remarkable aptitude. * * * It is highly probable that
the astronomical knowledge of the Chaldeans in the days of Terah and Abraham was
much more accurate than that possessed by the Greeks in the time of Hipparchus."
Mr. Proctor ultimately comes to the conclusion that "the stranger called Philition
by Herodotus, may, for aught that appears, have been Abraham himself."
Our next inquiries are, with regard to the causes or reasons that
led to the erection of the pyramids, and to the purposes for which they were used.
Various theories have been advanced on these points. Some have supposed
that these vast structures were associated with the religious rites of the ancient
Egyptians; others have suggested that they combined the purposes of tombs and temples;
again, that they were astronomical observatories; also that they had primarily astrological
import. It has also been argued that they were defences against the sands of the
great desert, or places of refuge during the excessive overflows of the Nile; the
idea has also been advanced that they were granaries, somewhat after the manner
of those erected under the direction of Joseph, the Israelite. A very little reflection
will manifest that some of the suggestions are entirely untenable. Take for instance
the notion that they were granaries. If so, what a vast waste of material, how entirely
does their structure and form unsuit them for such a purpose. As wise a people as
their builders must have been would scarcely have constructed a mountain of masonry,
with two or three relatively small rooms therein, for such a purpose. There is some
show of reason for believing that some of them were tombs and temples combined,
but this will not hold good with regard to the pyramid of Cheops. Nothing found
therein has given the least ground-work for the supposition that it was used for
sepulchral purposes. In what is called the king's chamber was found an empty stone
chest or coffer, without a lid; but in form, ornament and material it is entirely
different to the usual sarcophagus used by the ancient Egyptians for the reception
of the embalmed dead.
The reasons for believing it to have been built as an observatory are cogent and numerous. There can be no doubt that in many respects it was intended by its builders to typify astronomical truths; evidence in proof of which will be hereafter adduced. It has been suggested that the granite coffer found in what is now called the king's chamber (simply that it may have a distinctive name) was filled, in whole or in part, as circumstances required, with water, and that the face of the heavens was reflected therein, through the slanting passages that pointed directly to the polar star. That this coffer was used as a receptacle for water is highly probable, from the fact that a well tapping the waters of the Nile is found in the pyramid.[2] In this inner chamber, surrounded by this vast mass of masonry, removed as far as possible from the atmospheric and electric perturbations existing on the earth's surface, it is argued that using the water in the coffer as a mirror, the most accurate observations could be taken that were then possible. This idea we deem untenable, as it appears to us that the inclines and angles in the passages would render such reflection next to impossible. According to certain Arabian historians "there were placed in the great pyramid divers celestial spheres and stars, and what they severally operate in their aspects, and the perfumes which are to be used to them, and the books which treat of these matters."
Two of the reasons advanced above, as applied to the pyramids of
Cheops, are worthy of our consideration.
1st. That it was an astronomical observatory.
2d. That it was associated with the religion of the ancient Egyptians.
The reasons for believing it to have been built as an observatory are cogent and numerous. There can be no doubt that in many respects it was intended by its builders to typify astronomical truths; evidence in proof of which will be hereafter adduced. It has been suggested that the granite coffer found in what is now called the king's chamber (simply that it may have a distinctive name) was filled, in whole or in part, as circumstances required, with water, and that the face of the heavens was reflected therein, through the slanting passages that pointed directly to the polar star. That this coffer was used as a receptacle for water is highly probable, from the fact that a well tapping the waters of the Nile is found in the pyramid.[2] In this inner chamber, surrounded by this vast mass of masonry, removed as far as possible from the atmospheric and electric perturbations existing on the earth's surface, it is argued that using the water in the coffer as a mirror, the most accurate observations could be taken that were then possible. This idea we deem untenable, as it appears to us that the inclines and angles in the passages would render such reflection next to impossible. According to certain Arabian historians "there were placed in the great pyramid divers celestial spheres and stars, and what they severally operate in their aspects, and the perfumes which are to be used to them, and the books which treat of these matters."
The evidences that it was an edifice erected for sacred purposes
are not so strong as those that can be brought forward in favor of its astronomical
uses. We incline to the opinion that it combined both purposes; but we are scarcely
willing to admit that if it was a temple, it was erected by a believer in the faith
that looked upon Osiris and associate deities as the true Gods. The style of this
vast structure and the temples erected by the followers of that faith are the antipodes
of each other. The perfect purity of the pyramid from every idolatrous ornament
and reference as well as of all attempts to glorify the wealth, might or wisdom
of its human builders, makes it differ entirely, generically and radically from
all ordinary Egyptian temples, pictured from top to bottom with the praises of their
false gods. Besides, it is asserted, as before shown that the man who built this
pyramid shut up the temples, a very inconsistent act, if he were a worshiper at
their shrines. We hold the opinion that if this pyramid was used for religious purposes
at all, it was in connection with the doctrines taught by Abraham, and if the Lord
permitted the patriarch to preach to the Egyptians that principle of the Gospel
known to us as baptism for the dead, we can well imagine the use to which the coffer
in the king's chamber was applied. Indeed, the idea that the coffer was a baptismal
font has been suggested by more than one Gentile writer,[3]
but if it were used especially in the ordinances for the salvation of those who
had passed from this sphere of action the symbolism would be almost perfect; for
we have here a font enshrined in the heart of an artificial mountain, that could
be reached only through a straight, stony gate and by a long, narrow and mysterious
passage. How accurately these typify the valley of the shadow of death, and the
grave, and how perfect the imagery of going into the heart of this solid mountain
to act for those who had been laid away in the sepulchre. There is one thing that
greatly strengthens the idea that if its uses were religious, they were Abrahamic.
It is that this very coffer is of the exact capacity of the ark of the covenant
of Moses' day, also that an originally marked oft portion of the chamber in which
the coffer stands is of the exact capacity of the brazen sea, or baptismal font,
in Solomon's Temple. Surely there is something more than a mere coincidence in this.
Amongst these and kindred
truths, as manifested in the construction of this vast artificial mountain, we may
mention the law of planetary and solar motion, the distance of the earth from its
centre--the sun, the exact size, shape and density of our terraquous globe, the
precise length of its solar orbit, as also the value of the sacred cubit as the
unit of measurement. Writing on this subject, in a recent number of the Juvenile
Instructor, Elder Joseph L. Barfoot (Beth) remarks: "There has been a great
deal of guess-work heretofore about the use of the great pyramid at Geezah. The
prevailing opinion was that it had been intended for a tomb for one of the ancient
kings of Egypt, Discoveries have recently been made which have led to the inference
that it had far more important uses, in fact that it was an observatory, built upon
mathematical principles, and designed to perpetuate, through all succeeding time,
a correct knowledge of the heavens and the earth. * * * It is found that the measure
by which the proportions of the great pyramid were determined is an exact proportional
to the axis of the earth itself. This is a very important thing, for it is thus
in harmony with natural standards of measure, such as used by Deity. This pyramid
standard measure is called the sacred cubit, as it is found that the standard divinely
recognized through Moses was the same as that of the pyramid. The sacred cubit was
the pyramid cubit."
... the cubit is the unit of celestial
measurement, by which the size of the worlds are measured when the foundations thereof
are laid; by which the distances of the suns and planets are regulated, and all
the creations of the Holy Ones controlled. That this cubit, which was the unit of
measurement of holy things on this earth--the ark of the tabernacle, the temple,
etc., was also the unit of measurement when this earth was created, is further proven
by the following extract from Elder Barfoot's writings: "The sacred cubit is in
length rather more than twenty-five (25.025) inches of English measure. It is
one ten-millionth part of the radius of the axis of the earth at the poles;" that is, it is 10,000,000 sacred cubits from the centre of the earth to either the
north or south pole, or 20,000,000 through the earth from pole to pole. Brother
Barfoot continues: "No higher or more reliable standard of extreme precision could
be given to man than the measure of the polar radius, for all other terrestrial
and celestial things relating to the earth are in proportion to this natural standard.
So important are the discoveries made recently by means of the sacred cubit that
men are surprised to think that the uses of the great pyramid have been so long
concealed."
We now turn to some of the peculiarities of the great pyramid, to
which passing reference has before been made, gleaning our information from the
writings of Petrie, Osborn, Smyth, Mackay, and others. We would observe, however,
that our space prevents us from giving any but the more prominent references.
1st. For parts cosmocally and symbolically significant, the metric
standard of the great pyramid is the sacred cubit, exactly one ten-millionth of
the earth's polar radius, the only natural standard of both unique and extreme precision;
a standard of divine origination, primeval, and preserved in the least disturbed
line of Abraham's family (the Arabs) to the present day. (Mr. Wm. Petrie.)
2d. The direction of the strait entrance passage, inclining at 26°
20' into the north side of the pyramid, was such that at the reputed date of its
establishment[4] this direction was that of the
primeval pole star, then at its lower culmination, while Alcyone[5]
(the centre of, or governing planet which controls our solar system) then near the
celestial equator, was at its upper culmination, or on the same meridian at midnight
of the autumnal equinox. This definite combination cannot recur for 25,898 years;
it marked the date of the pyramid, and of the year of the Pleiades," a commencement
of a natural chronologic era, traditions of which have remained in most times and
countries, or to put it in another shape, "the meridian of the primeval pole star
became rigidly stationary on Alcyone at the date of the great pyramid, after which
it commenced to retrograde."
3d. A thousand billion times the pyramid's weight, carefully computed,
is the mass of the whole earth, namely, six thousand and fifty trillions of British
tons.
4th. The annual circuit of the earth--that is, one year, is represented
by the length of the base circuit of the pyramid, and each day of twenty-four hours
by four cubits. Or each day of our year is represented by one cubit
on each of the four sides of the pyramid, each side representing in its whole
length one year of this earth. Or one day to a cubit as stated in the Book
of Abraham. ... Napoleon Bonaparte, when he gathered
his armies in Egypt, pointing to the pyramids, told his legions that forty centuries
looked down upon them.
Mr. Mackay, writing (1870) on facts in astronomy, states that the
great pyramid has been "investigated and explored as no other monument, ancient
and modern, ever was; and the indefatigable explorers have been rewarded with an
abundant harvest of the most brilliant discoveries. One of these, discovered by
Mr. Petrie, is the clear indication that the architect of this pyramid knew the
mean distance of the sun from the earth with an exactitude to which modern science
never approached till within the last seven years. * * * The best lineal and angular
measurements have been combined by W. Petrie, who shows therefrom that the original
height of the great pyramid, from the pavement to its base, was 486.25 British feet;
this multiplied by the ninth power of ten--i.e., 1,000,000,000 gives a result
of 92,093,000 British miles, for the mean distance of the sun. The latest collective
result of science reckons the probable truth to be between 91,970,000, and 92,150,000;
while the great pyramid gives 92,093,000 miles,[6]
being completely within these minimum uncertainties of science." This, by other
references, has been proven to have been no accident, but intended by the builders,
as it constitutes but a small part of the evidence discovered in this direction.
Here, then, we have evidence that the ancient Egyptians had a knowledge
of the true distance from the sun. That they obtained this knowledge only by divine
light is evidenced by the abortive attempts of other ancient investigators to determine
this question. For instance, in the days of Herodotus, (B. C. 500,) it was thought
that the sun was distant only some eight or ten miles; fifty years later it was
estimated by Anaxagoras at 1800; 150 years later, 5,300,000 was the computed distance;
1900 years later, Kepler calculated the distance at 26,400,000 miles; in A. D. 1750
the supposed distance was increased to 81,650,000, and so, from the dawn of creation
until now, uninspired men have been groping after this truth, and even to-day they
are not entirely satisfied that the exact measurement has been obtained.
"We find,"[7] to use the language of Dr. J. A.
Seiss, of Philadelphia," a perfect geometric figure, so framed that the four sides
of its base bear the same proportion to its vertical height as the circumference
of a circle to its radius; that each of its base lines measures the even ten-millionth
part of the semi-axis of the earth just as many times as there are days in the year;
that its height multiplied by the ninth power of ten gives the mean distance between
the earth and its great centre of light; that its unit of length is the even five
hundredth millionth part of the polar diameter of the globe we inhabit; that its
two diagonals of base measure in inches the precise number of years in the great
processional cycle; that its bulk of masonry is an even proportion of the weight
of the earth itself, and that its setting and shaping are squared and oriented[8]
with microscopic accuracy." Regarding the coffer in the king's chamber he continues:
"We perceive in it a most accurately-shaped standard of measures and proportions,
its sides and bottom cubically identical with its internal space, the length of
its two sides to its height as a circle to its diameter, its exterior volume just
twice the dimension of its bottom, and its whole measure just the fiftieth part
of the chamber in which it was put when the edifice was built," for it could not
have been gotten into the chamber after the building was finished, by reason of
the size and angles of the entrance passages. Now, then, let us add to these facts
a statement by the same author... "Everywhere do we encounter the traditions of Abraham's skill in the
knowledge of the heavens, how he argued from his observation of the heavenly orbs,
and how he occupied himself in Egypt teaching the priests of Heliopolis in the lore
of the skies. Doubtless this was not the naked science of astronomy as the schools
conceive of it, but as respected the theological and Messianic truths symbolized
in these celestial hieroglyphics, in which, as in the more literal promises, he
rejoiced to see Christ's day, and saw it and was glad. (John, viii, 56.)" ...nor need we be surprised thereat, when revelation, ancient and modern,
states that Enoch, and indeed other antediluvian patriarchs, saw not only "Christ's
day," but the world's history, even to the winding up scene.
Admitting that the shape of the pyramid, in connection with its
other references, has a prophetic import, it becomes a remarkable fact that this
stupendous four-sided monument, in this particular phase of its construction, typifies
the number of days, according to the reckoning of the Lord and of Kolob, between
the fall of man and the incarnation of our Savior (4000 years)...
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap09.htm
...the statement of an eminent modern writer on Egyptian literature, who declares that at first sight the religious branch of this literature "seems to proclaim the Egyptians the most polytheistic of men, but a more careful examination leads to the supposition that the various gods were only intended to bring out in symbol and in allegory the various qualities and manifestations of one great God, incarnate, eternal and omnipotent."
http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/tboa/chap09.htm
...the statement of an eminent modern writer on Egyptian literature, who declares that at first sight the religious branch of this literature "seems to proclaim the Egyptians the most polytheistic of men, but a more careful examination leads to the supposition that the various gods were only intended to bring out in symbol and in allegory the various qualities and manifestations of one great God, incarnate, eternal and omnipotent."
The Great Pyramids - Enoch and Thoth - Debate !! - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXkbfdYhOVQ
(This seems to agree with the former sacred-texts in some ways, but it claims Enoch to be the builder of the Great Pyramid.)
Was the Great Pyramid built before the flood around 3100 BC? If so,
Did Enoch build it or did the fallen angels build it? Why would Enoch build the pyramid for? There were no Pharaohs in those days.Why would the fallen angels build the pyramid? They were too busy to teach mankind the wicked things.
18:00 There was no mention of the pyramids in Egyptian culture.
I don't think UFOs are guardian angels.
Was Thoth Enoch? Was the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of the Eternal Day) written by Thoth (or Enoch)? Then what could be the meaning of the book? Could it mean it came from God?
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http://jcolavito.tripod.com/lostcivilizations/id10.html
It was most likely Fourth Dynasty work.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090921-great-pyramid-giza-date-built.html
August 23, 2470 B.C.
"Khufu, the pharaoh meant to be buried in the Great Pyramid, took power in 2470 B.C., according to Nur El-Din and colleagues."
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1 The Great Pyramid of Egypt, How was it Built- new solid theory, new evidence. JP Houdin. 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpR7AKKN87E
It was built inside out. Seems contradicting to second part below.
2 The Great Pyramid of Egypt, How was it Built- new solid theory, new evidence. JP Houdin. 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4t4qHOeilo
An external ramp for the lower portion, and internal ramp for the upper portion. Casing stones were laid first.
3 The Great Pyramid of Egypt, How was it Built- new solid theory, new evidence. JP Houdin. 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwohIUxals
Trolleys made of wood were used inside to carry stones.
4 The Great Pyramid of Egypt, How was it Built- new solid theory, new evidence. JP Houdin. 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ5j058avZg
It took a team of engineers with 3-D methods to test reconstructing the great pyramid and approved the possibility of using an internal spiral ramp. How could the ancient architect be so genius!
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Egypt Exposed: True Origins of Civilization By Robert Bauval, Secrets of Egypt Revealed - FREE MOVIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeH1S8TQ1-E
The reactions of the experts were bizarre because what Robert presented was true. The Egyptians were deep into after life and they wanted to return to the stars.
50:00 prehistoric life about 8000-9000 BC
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Robert Bauval - Black Genesis 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioOAZJjqJKU&list=PL497821DA3121D62A
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