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The Patriarchal Age; Or, The History and Religion of Mankind
The Patriarchal Age Or The History and Religion of Mankind Author:George Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF MAN, HIS FALL, AND THE PROMISE OF A REDEEMER. Substantial agreement between sacred and profane history. Man's Primit... more »ive Condit1on—Scripture corroborated by other ancient testimony—Maimonides —Mohammedan traditions — Hindoos — Zendavesta—Trismegistus — Hesiod — Ovid. Man's Fall—Historical Corroboration—Custom of worshiping in groves— Garden at Cadiz—At Epiris—In Campania—Of the Hesperidcs—Sacral Persons of Heathen Mythology—Apollo—Chrishna—Hercules— Orpheus—Thor—Bacchus —Heathen Traditions— Plato—Dicomrchus—Hindoos—Persians—Worship of the Serpent—Its universality—Chaldea—Persia—India—China—Syria—Phcnicia— Egypt—Greece and Rome—Druids—American Indians—Conclusion from the above facts—Geographical position of Paradise—Tree of life and cherubim— Review of man's primitive condition and fall—Consequences of the Fall—Loss of moral purity—Of intercourse with God—Of inward and outward happiness. PnoMisE Of A Redeemer—Meaning which Adam and Eve attached to it. We have already observed the peculiar prominence which Holy Scripture gives to the creation of man. It is worthy of attention, that, although greatly disfigured by fable, most of the profane histories refer to this fact in a manner extremely similar. The Chaldean Berosus, for instance, having spoken of the creation of the various animal tribes, describes the creation of man in the following language: " Belus took off his head, while the other gods mingled his blood as it gushed out with the earth, and from thence were formed men." It is scarcely possible to conceive of a more significant mode of expression than this: the ordinary operations of Deity are represented as being unequal to the creation of a being so elevated in character as man; for this purpose it was necessary that there ...« less