Echoes from Egypt

Contents

PAGE

PRELIMINARY ObSERYATIONS 1

Part I. Chapter

I. The Origin of Idolatry and Sacrifice .... G

II. Idolatry in Egypt 3G

III. Egyptian Triad 61

IV. Manetho and the Monuments 73

V. Josephus and Manetho 90

VI. Date of Joseph's Entry into Egypt 110

VII. Israel in Egypt 131

VIII. The Cataclysm 15G

IX. The Brazen Serpent 184

Part II

I. Babylon and Egypt 205

II. The Woman clothed with the Sun 234

III. Michael and the Dragon 258

IV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

IV. A Day for a Year 279

V. The Beast and his Eider 308

VI. The Eemnant 339

VII. The Mystic Number . . 371

VIII. The Type of Antichrist 424

IX. The Spiritual Exodus, the "Wilderness of Life,

the Best that remaineth 449

ERRATUM,

Page 27, line 5, for latter read, former

ECHOES FROM EGYPT,

PEELIMINABY OBSERVATIONS.

A work, the object of which is to throw light upon the mystic number of the Beast spoken of in the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation, can scarcely be deemed superfluous, when it is borne in mind that a recent writer 1 on prophecy has observed concerning the various interpretations hitherto given of this obscure and remarkable passage, that u all seems uncertain conjecture."

For attempting a new mode of treating the subject no apology can be necessary, since the great diversity of opinion obtaining in the learned world sufficiently attests the fact, that the various methods hitherto pursued have failed to produce a solution satisfactory to all parties.

1 Archdeacon Harrison.

B

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

In the elucidation of symbolic prophecy a twofold treatment of the subject would appear requisite. First the interpretation of the symbol, then its application. Commentators appear to have confined themselves too much to the latter of these methods ; disregarding the typical structure of the passage, they have sought a response to the mystic number exclusively in the History of the Church of Christ; neglecting to address themselves to the evolution of the symbol, they have been content to exercise their talents in ascertaining its probable, or possible, accomplishment.

It is in its too much neglected typical character that it is now proposed to consider this sacred mystery. Guided by that rule which the Holy Ghost enjoins, and comparing things spiritual with spiritual, L e. as the Fathers interpret the passage, — comparing the things which were inspired by the Spirit in the Old Testament with what is now revealed to us by the same Spirit in the New, it will be necessary to look back to the earlier pages of God's Word, not forward to the history of the Church of Christ ; to take a retrospective view into the depths of Holy Scripture, not a prospective one into ecclesiastical records. And should the endeavour to elicit a response to the symbol in events which befel the ancient Church of God be successful, we may probably be better prepared to ascertain its office as an index of "things which must shortly come to pass."

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

In commencing an investigation of this nature, a full statement might be expected of the line of argument intended to be pursued, and of the conclusion at which the author has arrived, and the absence of such statement may give to the earlier chapters of this work an appearance of desultoriness which the Author cannot but deplore. Yet after long and anxious consideration he has deemed it best to abstain from such a course, under the conviction that it would materially interfere with the proper handling of the subject to be developed; and should the reader be content to follow him patiently through the first part of this treatise, he trusts the second part will prove of such a character as to vindicate the method which, most unwillingly, he has felt himself compelled to adopt.

Of the paucity of learning brought to bear on the subject, none can be more sensible than the Author. He has felt most deeply that it is not always he who discovers the vein of gold that is the best qualified to work the mine.

On Pagan Mythology in particular his knowledge is so slight, that he would gladly have profited by the advice and suggestions of those who have devoted their time and attention to fathoming subjects of so deep and recondite a nature.

The assistance of an Oriental scholar also would have been most valuable in enabling the Author to cope with the difficulties by which he felt himself surrounded.

b 2

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

In reference to those portions of Egyptian history of which he has been compelled to treat, he can only assure the reader that the limited number of books on this vexed question which he has been able to procure have been studied with such assiduity, ability, and fairness, as he could command; and the amount of credit conceded to the testimony of Manetho will, he believes, be felt to be more than justified by the deep and unexpected response which Prophecy will be found to utter to the oftdisputed statements of this ancient Egyptian historian.

Concerning the unlooked-for conclusion at which he has arrived, few, the Author trusts, will be disposed to stigmatize it as an ignis fatuus arising from the unhealthy vapours of an uncultivated soil ; but he deems it right to state, that, did he not entertain the hope that he had succeeded in striking a new chord in the divine harmony of prophecy, the present volume, with its manifold crudities and imperfections, would never have been committed to the press.

It may be proper to add, that the following pages have been written at a period during which the Author was prevented by severe indisposition from attending to the ministerial duties of an extensive parish; an indisposition which has ultimately induced him to resign his incumbency. In making this statement, he wishes it to be understood that it is not put forth with the view of disarming cri-

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS .

ticism, being fully aware that it is by collision of opinions that truth is elicited, but rather to supply an adequate reason for not having followed his subject, during a period of impaired powers of application, into such depths of research as its character would seem to demand. On some points, indeed, he feels that he has rather raised a question, than satisfied an inquiry. Thankful will he be, if he has been permitted to originate a train of thought, which men of profound erudition may more successfully pursue.

The Author cannot conclude these preliminary observations without acknowledging the deep obligation he is under to two kind and talented relatives, who have devoted themselves with unwearied assiduity to the labour of preparing his papers for the press, and rendering them presentable to the public eye.

PART I.

CHAPTEE I.

THE ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY AND SACRIFICE.

It is a remarkable fact, that how largely soever Holy Scripture may speak concerning the existence and effects of Idolatry in the world, yet with regard to the period of its rise, and the history of its origin, we have no direct information. The absence of such statement has given occasion to much difference of opinion among learned men, some dating its rise from Cain, others referring it to a period subsequent to the Flood. Of these conflicting opinions, the former, to my apprehension, bears the greater appearance of probability. But even when throwing its origin thus far back to the infancy of the world, I incline to the opinion that we have not yet reached the fountain whence flowed its poisoned waters. In a word, I believe

THE ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY.

that in the account given in Holy Scripture of the fall of man, we have also the history of the origin of idolatry.

Idolatry is of a twofold character, spiritual and material — theoretical and practical. Under the first, man enshrines in his mind an ideal which is not God, and renders to that ideality the adoration due to God alone. Under the second, he selects an arbitrary symbol, or embodies in a visible form his ideal, whether of the true God, or of any falsity which he may have substituted in the place of God, and offers to it his homage and worship. The first commandment in the Decalogue is directed against the mental, the second against the palpable sin. God by the Prophet Ezekiel charges his people with the infraction of both these laws : " Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts behold the one transgression ! " and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face ;" behold the other !

To constitute this sin, a bodily act of adoration cannot be necessary, for in the case of mental idolatry such a mode of demonstration is simply impossible. Man must symbolize his ideal, before he can bow down to it, and worship it; and even when the ideal shall have been clothed in symbol, an external act is not the sole mode by which idolatry is capable of being manifested. u Any thing that has our highest esteem and regard, and is the special object of our hope, our trust, and our

[PART I.

care, that we make our God. Thus the covetous man is an idolater Idol worship may then be perpetrated in a variety of ways ; any one of those observances which, in the aggregate, constitute our duty to God, when directed to aught which is not God, constituting an act of idolatry. To quote the words of Bp. Sanderson : " To whom we make ourselves servants, him we make the Lord our God." The devil is called the god of this world, because the men of this evil world by doing him service do make a god of him."

Bearing these truths in mind, I would ask: if faith and obedience when directed immediately to God constitute an act of worship, and when directed to any object other than God, especially when in plain opposition to his known will, an act of idolatry, was not that fearful surrender by our first parents of faith and obedience at the suggestion of the serpent the first act of idolatry perpetrated in the world ? Yes, surely. When the woman gave ear to the voice of the serpent rather than to the voice of God, and, tolerating his blasphemous insinuation against the truth and mercy of Jehovah, transferred her faith and obedience from God to Satan, and disobeyed the sole command which it had pleased the all-wise Creator to impose upon his favoured creatures, she was, according to the whole tenor of Holy Writ, guilty of idolatry. " He who

1 Burkitt.

CH. I.]

AND SACRIFICE.

gives to the creature what belongs solely and exclusively to the Deity is an idolater 2 ." Eve rendered to the serpent that faith and obedience due to God alone, and in that act of hers idolatry sprang into existence.

The transgression of our first parents is usually viewed in the light of a simple act of disobedience ; but in truth it was much more than this. It was an act of disobedience emanating from a lack of faith, — a transfer from God to the serpent, not of obedience only, but of faith. Whereas faith has been defined as that act of the mind whereby we take God at his word, this sin of Adam and Eve was an act of the mind, whereby, in distrust of God, they took Satan at his word. Here was no mere lusting of the eye, — no mere prompting of desire, — no mere question as to whether obedience should or should not be rendered to the will of their heavenly Father; that the apple was eaten because it appeared good for food and pleasant to the eye, might establish only the fact of disobedience; but in the narrative of the Fall is implied turpitude of a far darker character. God had said of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, " Thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" and the serpent said, " Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes

2 M'Caul, Lectures, p. 125.

THE ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY [PART I.

shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowinggood and evil," — two statements so diametrically opposed to each other, that to admit the one, of necessity compels the rejection of the other. The alternative was before them of faith in God or faith in the serpent; and they "made God a liar" to place their trust and confidence in a creature whom that God had placed in subjection to themselves. Faith in God would have taught our first parents to look upon the apple as the symbol of sorrow and of death; faith in Satan led them to regard it as their passport to the privileges of Deity. Eve in stretching forth her hand to pluck the forbidden fruit, raised it to overthrow, if it were possible, the throne of God, and elevate the serpent in his place. Satan thus became the god of this world, and the human race subjected to his service. By this act man was transferred from the loving protection of a beneficent Father to the wrath and vengeance of a justly offended God. This sufficiently accounts for the fact of idolatry being throughout the Bible so emphatically denounced above all other sins. It was the outgoing of all iniquity, and involved every other sin in its fearful issue. The nature and guilt of original sin it is not my purpose to discuss. I shall merely observe, that as idolatry was the parent of sin, so was it also the universal sin; for, perpetrated by the first pair, in whom were contained the whole human race, it was the sin, and the only known sin, which involved every individual natu-

CH. I.]

AND SACRIFICE.

rally engendered of the offspring of Adam, — every member of the vast family of mankind, — in its tremendous consequences.

As idolatry had its initiative in a transfer of faith, so the instauration of faith is its antidote. To meet this exigency, an object of faith was immediately set forth by God in the promise, " The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." The covenant of obedience having failed, that of faith was instituted, and a system of types appointed at once to test and demonstrate the existence of that faith in the heart, and to ensure its perpetuation among the successive generations of mankind.

When I say the covenant of faith was instituted, that of obedience having failed, I would not be understood to imply that faith formed no component of the Paradisiacal covenant. The foregoing observations tend to the opposite conclusion. The earlier covenant, equally with that instituted on the Fall, had as its requirements on the part of man, faith and obedience ; but the faith of that earlier covenant was simply this : that what God had promised and threatened, He would surely perform. The faith of the later covenant was more complex. Without discarding the earlier elements, it superadded others of a totally different character ; and, because God would punish sin, involved the recognition of a vicarious obedience, a vicarious death, and a vicarious title to salvation. Man's spiritual nature had received a

THE ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY [PART I.

deadly wound, and that perfect obedience, which was thenceforth impossible to the first Adam and his posterity, was to be wrought out in the person of a second Adam, on whom was inflicted the penalty of a world's disobedience. " He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities." Faith in the efficacy of his atonement became the basis on which was founded the restoration of man to the favour of his offended God.

I do not presume to decide to what extent the acceptance of this great and saving truth was held essential among the successive generations of the old world; — probably the requirement varied with opportunity of knowledge conferred; — or how far the incarnation of Deity in the promised seed was understood and anticipated : but whatever the degree of appreciation of the scheme devised, its vital element was clearly the utter abnegation of personal merit, and the trusting, for acceptance with God, to the merits and atonement of another.

On the origin of Sacrifice, as on that of idolatry, Holy Scripture is silent. We first learn its existence in connexion with the rejection of one of the sacrificers. The question respecting its rise is not, however, so complex as that concerning the commencement of idolatry, the whole difficulty being comprised in this alternative : either it originated in the command of God, or it was the device of man. Notwithstanding so much has been urged

CH. I.]

ASD SACRIFICE.

in favour of the former position that any further observation may appear superfluous, I shall venture the following remarks.

1st. The slaughter of animals immediately upon the Fall has been inferred from the fact that God supplied to Adam and Eve skins of beasts for clothing. This circumstance, combined with the opinion entertained by the generality of learned men that animal food was not permitted until after the Flood, almost compels the inference that the slaughter of these animals was connected with the rite of sacrifice. If these premises be admitted the inquiry is restricted within very narrow limits.

The supposition that the idea of animal sacrifice could have originated with man before he had been summoned into the presence of God after the Fall cannot for a moment be entertained. No thought of atonement, whether vicarious or otherwise, presented itself to the minds of the guilty pair. Their sole expedient to cover the nakedness of sin, was to sew fig-leaves together and make themselves aprons, and to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

2ndly. The skins of beasts being given for a covering at the termination of this awful interview, leads to the conclusion that animal sacrifice was instituted in the interval between its commencement and its close.

And now it may be asked, with whom would it originate? With fallen man, dumb before his outraged Maker, or with the offended, yet allmerciful Creator defining the terms of that new covenant, by which the terrible consequences of man's transgression were to be averted ? In my judgment this question admits but of one answer.

Srdly. The division of beasts into clean and unclean comports only with such a conclusion. It is connected in Holy Scripture with sacrificial rites, without any reference whatever to food 3 ; a fact which indicates an expression of the will of the Almighty relative to sacrifice. This classification could not have arisen in the mind of man ; it must have originated with the Deity.

But farther, at this early period when sin had so recently brought death into the world, could the bare idea of the slaughter of an animal have suggested itself to man's imagination ? Adam, as yet, scarce understood what death was, much less slaughter, or by what means it was to be effected. And this argument acquires additional force, from the consideration that in sacrifice death was effected by effusion of blood. The knowledge that " the blood is the life " must either have proceeded from a deep insight into organic animal structure, or have been imparted by the Creator of both man and beast. The former hypothesis is

3 Gen. vii. 2 ; viii. 20 ; is. 3.

id

CH. I.]

AND SACRIFICE.

palpably untenable; we have therefore no alternative but to adopt the latter.

Once more. Prior to the divine promulgation of the fact that without shedding of blood there is no remission, in connexion with the revelation of the promised Redeemer, the origination in the mind of man of the idea of vicarious suffering seems an impossibility, and after the doctrine of one sacrifice for the sins of the whole world had been enunciated, would, unless instituted by divine command, appear a derogation from the promised all-sufficient sacrifice of the Cross. It was only as a type that its place in the divine scheme could be admissible; and one indispensable characteristic of a Scripture type clearly is that it should originate with God, and not with man. It was, moreover, only from this its typical character that its value was derived, and a rite not terminating in itself, but deriving efficacy only in proportion as it was regarded externally and prospectively, is just such a remedy as man could never have devised. Yet this was precisely the nature of animal sacrifice. The blood of bulls and of goats could not take away sin ; it was only because adumbrating the precious bloodshedding of Christ, that God said of the sacrifices of the elder dispensation : " I have given," not accepted, " blood upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul."

In a word, supposing sacrifice to have been of

THE ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY [PART I.

man's device, it is difficult to conceive how man dared to offer, or God vouchsafed to accept it. Admitting it to have been a divine institution, we at once perceive how adequate an exponent it was of God's purposes and man's necessities. This, and this alone, renders intelligible the marked proofs of divine acceptance recorded from the time of Abel to the delivery of the Law by Moses, when its continuance was enjoined under the most awful penalties.

All these circumstances considered, we are almost compelled to conclude, not only that animal sacrifice originated in a divine command, but that Adam and Eve performed their first solemn act of sacrifice under the immediate guidance of the Deity, previous to their expulsion from Paradise, and that God then and there, by practical as well as oral instruction, unfolded to our first parents the stupendous mystery of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Viewed under such an aspect how solemn the origin of sacrifice ! At such a momentous crisis how appropriate its celebration! The Almighty Father directing the guilty pair in each particular of this divine institute, regulating and explaining its several particulars, animating their drooping souls by this type of ineffable mercies, to be more fully revealed hereafter. And they, heart-broken, bowed down by guilt and shame, with devout attention listening to the divine word, scrupulously regu-

CH. I.]

AND SACRIFICE.

lating their movements in obedience to the divine will, and from God's uttered word and enjoined act, imbibing the sacred aliment of faith and hope ; seeing Christ, albeit through a glass darkly, knowing in part, understanding as children, yet trusting to know hereafter, even as they themselves were known. Yes ; it is most reasonable to suppose that the covenant of faith was inaugurated by sacrifice ; that the fallen progenitors of the human race were, ere they quitted Eden, initiated into the mysteries of a rite which pointed to their future restoration through the seed of the woman. How sublime the thought, that before the earthly Paradise was barred against them, an act of sacrifice had become the pledge of a future glory, eternal in the heavens.

As animal sacrifice originated in divine commandment, so also a Place of sacrifice probably formed a portion of the divine appointment. From the fact that Cain and Abel brought an offering to the Lord, it has been argued, that " sacrifices were not offered in any place according to the fancy of the worshipper 4 and the exclamation of Cain, after God had passed sentence upon him for his act of fratricide, "Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid," coupled with the subsequent statement of the sacred historian, that " Cain went out from the presence of the Lord," 4 Kirby, Bridgwater Treatise, vol. i., lxiii.

C

THE ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY [PART I.

would seem to indicate " that God was present in some restricted sense in one particular place, by departing from which Cain was hid from his face, whatever was intended by that expression, ' From thy face shall I be hid.' Not from his omniscience and omnipresence, for there is no such thing as being hid from the all-seeing eye of God, or flying from his presence, which is every where, but from his favour and good will, and the outward tokens of it, as well as from the place where his Shechinah, or Sacred Majesty, was, and which was the place of divine worship, and where good men met, and worshipped God, and offered sacrifice to Him 5 ."

God dwelleth in light which cannot be approached. " No man can behold him as he is, and live." A portion, however, of that glory which in its integrity would destroy, has from time to time been manifested to mankind. The glowing flame of the Shechinah tabernacled in the cloud, and indicated the more immediate presence of the Omnipotent, when it pleased Him to reveal Himself to our fallen race. Whether such were his appearance in Paradise we know not. Probably even then the voice of the Lord walked in the garden, "his brightness as the light, with a thick cloud to cover him, and riding upon the wings of the wind." Probably, too, after the expulsion of

5 Gill's Com., Gen. iv. 14. 16.

CH. I.]

AND SACRIFICE.

our first parents from the garden of Eden, it was to its eastern gate, guarded by cherubim and a flaming sword, that Cain and Abel approached when they came to offer their respective sacrifices to the Lord. Here that flame of fire broke forth and devoured the firstling of the flock which Abel brought, thus proving that God had respect to him and his offering. Here God manifested his rejection of the offering of Cain by refusing to consume his sacrifice by holy fire.

If this be true, then we shall arrive at a very interesting conclusion, viz. that God Almighty appeared to his faithful servants in the Old World in a set place in a flame of fire between the Cherubim, as He did to his chosen people in the Holy of Holies in the New. That the eastern gate of Eden was before the Flood, what the Tabernacle and subsequently the Temple were after it — figures of that true Sanctuary which the Lord pitched and not man, whither Christ entered by his own blood once for all, to make a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.

It may possibly be objected, that the flaming sword at the gate of Paradise was an instrument of vengeance: not so the flame of fire in the Tabernacle. True, the flaming sword threatened with destruction whosoever should presume to break in to take of the tree of life, but so also in the Tabernacle, when Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire

c 2

THE ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY [PART I.

before the Lord, "there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them." Under ordinary circumstances, both probably ascended heavenward in lambent form. It was only when any attempt was made to approach otherwise than in the way commanded, that the devouring flame darted forth as lightning to consume the offender.

But there is another line of argument by which the objection may be met. It has been observed with regard to the flaming sword, that the words in the original may either be understood metaphorically of a flame like a sword, or be translated "a consuming flame," the original word often signifying an exhausting and violent heat ; that the word which we translate " turned every way " is in Hithpael, and signifies an action upon itself; that it is used in the same conjugation in other passages, where the sense seems to be that of revolving or rolling ; and that Ezekiel in his vision of the cherubim, describing the fire that preceded their presence, says that it enfolded itself 6 .

Mr. Kirby, to whom I am indebted for the foregoing remarks, further observes on Gen. iii. 24, that " the word which, in our translation, is rendered '-placed'' means properly caused to dwell, or placed in a tabernacle" "and that the word in question is used by Jeremiah to denote God's presence in his Tabernacle in Shiloh." Both these

fi Kirby, Bridg. Treat., vol. i., preface, lxv.

CH. I.]

AND SACRIFICE.

remarks tend to confirm the idea that the Jewish Tabernacle and the access to Paradise were of a kindred character, that the devouring flame which burned there was the visible symbol of the presence of the Deity tabernacling among men, and that the eastern gate of Eden was "connected with the worship of God after the Fall 7 ."

" The Jewish Tabernacle, which, as Philo calls it, was a portable temple, every reader of Scripture knows was divided into two principal parts, or, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, tabernacles, the first of which was called the Holy Place, and the second the most Holy place or the Holy of Holies. This last Tabernacle is expressly stated in Scripture to be a figure of heaven, 1 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us ;' where the allusion is evidently made to the annual entry of the Jewish high priest into the second Tabernacle as representing Christ's entry into Heaven itself, where the presence of God was manifested 8 ."