The Dionysian Artificers

Again, "There is nothing in nature that is not him; he is all that exists; he is even what is not; and what is, he brought into light. And as nothing can be made without a maker, so you must think that unless God is always acting, it is impossible for any thing to exist in heaven, air, earth, sea, in all the world, in any particle of the world, in what is as well as in what is not. This is with the best name, God; this, again, is the most powerful of all things; this, conspicuous in mind; this, present with eyes; this, incorporeal; this, as it were, multi-corporeal, for nothing is in the bodies that is not in him; because, he alone exists in all; he has all names; because be is the only father; so it has no name because he is the father of all." Apud Kirker, Vol. II. p. 504. 28:1 Synesius, speaking of the Egyptian hierophant; observes thus; "they have χωμαστη`ρια {Greek xwmasth`ria}, which are arks, concealing, they say, the spheres." See Plutar. De Iside and Orsiride. 28:2 Julius Africanus, a Christian Priest, by birth a Jew, made a short compendium of the history of Manethon, that the author himself might be dispensed with: this was about the year 230 of the Christian era. Finding that the Egyptian Chronology represented the world some thousands of years older than the chronology of the Bible, he so disfigured the dates of Manethon as to make him agree with the Bible. Moreover, this work of Africanus is also lost, and we have only extracts of it, preserved in the work of a monk, generally known by the name of Syncellus, who confesses that he mutilated and altered Africanus. Now this individual not even had the original Bible, but only the Greek translation, which avowedly has the chronology vitiated; and yet Manethon's data were to be disfigured and interpolated, to make it square with the incorrect Greek translation of the Bible.

28:3 "Celsus seems to me, here, to do just as if a man, travelling into Egypt, where the wise men of the Egyptians, according to their country learning, philosophize much, about those things that are accounted by them divine, whilst the ideots, in the mean time, hearing only certain fables, which they know not the meaning of, are very much pleased therewith: Celsus, I say, does as if such sojourner in Egypt, p. 29 who had conversed only with those ideots, and not been at all instructed by any of the priests, in their arcane and recondite mysteries, should boast that he knew all that belonged to the Egyptian theology." Origines, contra Celsum, Lib. I. p. 11. "When amongst the Egyptians there is a king chosen out of the military order, be is forthwith brought to the priests, and by them instructed in that arcane theology which conceals mysterious truths under obscure fables and allegories." Plutarch. De Iside, p. 354. 29:1 We will content ourselves, here with the authority of Kircher, one of the most learned antiquarians in Egyptian matters. "Therefore, Hermes, that great author of the hieroglyphic doctrine, elucidating many things, chiefly about God, and his perfections, also of the creation of the world, and its preservation, of the administration of the same world and its parts, both by himself, and through his angels, as he heard of the Patriarchs about the government of the world, endeavoured seriously to penetrate these things: hence sprang a new philosophy in which as he treated of more sublime things than the ignorant could understand, he veiled under a new art, afterwards called hieroglyphic, which was hidden from rude understandings, not in wooden monuments, but in mystic figures, engraved in hard stones, for an eternal memorial with posterity; as a sublime science of things deserving eternal veneration, and worthy of being recommended to all; and in imitation of the great eternal Artificer, in the administration of the world, he so constituted his system, that it was communicated only to the select hieromists, priests, stolists, and hierogramatists, men of great genius, wise for the government of the state, according to the rules of administration, prescribed in the obelisks, and men who had shown ability and aptitude, and were moreover restricted, by oath, to keep it secret. By these means the priests, being looked upon by all with admiration, in consequence of their science in those new things, expressed in the symbols, were honoured by the multitude almost as half gods. But to increase this veneration they told the people many things about the apparitions of the gods, their answers, and how they were to be worshipped to sooth them and make them propitious: to this we must add the great profit they had by their machines and mechanical inventions and their skill in mathematics; and their making statues that moved their eyes and head, to express approbation or disapprobation: and that the miserable multitude was deceived and beguiled, paying always to obtain a favor from the gods, or to avert their anger. Hence it came, that in the course of time, that religion conceived by Trimegistus in a sincere sense, was by degrees degenerated into open and declared idolatry."

Kircher, vol. IV. p. 82. 30:1 "O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion only the fables remain, and those incredible to thy posterity." Trimegistus, in Asclepio. 30:2 The emigration of the Ionians to Asia Minor is mentioned by Herodotus, and others, but the epoch is fixed by various authors differently: By Playfair in the year B. C 1044 Gillies 1055 Barthelemy. Anacharsis 1076 30:3 "It is said, that the chief of the Ionian colony was Androclus, a legitimate son of Codrus, the king of Athens; so it is related, that the Ionians established their royalty; and those descending from that race, even now, are called kings, and enjoy their boners, that is to say, a place where they attend the spectacles and the public games, wearing the royal purple, and a staff instead of the sceptre, and the Eleusinian rites." Strabo, Lib. XIV. p. 907. This emigration is also mentioned by Herodotus, Lib. I. cap. 142, and 148; Aelianus, Lib. VIII. Pausanias, in Achaicis; Plutarchus, in Homero, Veleius Paterculus, in Chronico. Clemens, Lib. I. Strom. 31:1 Vide Strabo, above. 31:2 "Byblos was capital of Cinera, and there was a temple of Apollo, situated on an elevated spot, not far from the sea. Afterwards is the river called Adonis." Strabo, Lib. XVI. p. 1074. 31:3 "Lebedos, was the seat and assembly of the Dionysian Artificers, who inhabit from Ionia to the Hellespont; there they had annually their solemn meetings and festivities in honor of Bacchus. Their first seat was Theo.

31:3 "Lebedos, was the seat and assembly of the Dionysian Artificers, who inhabit from Ionia to the Hellespont; there they had annually their solemn meetings and festivities in honor of Bacchus. Their first seat was Theo. Strabo, Lib. XIV. p. 921. The Latin translator of Strabo renders the Dionysian Artificers ( Διονυσιος τεχνε {Greek Dionusios texne}) scenicos artificers; because Bacchus or Dionysus was supposed to be the inventor of theatres and scena, derived from the Heb. שכז {Hebrew ShKZ}, to inhabit. 31:4 Polydor. Virg. de Rer. Invent, I. 3. c. 13. 31:5 Strabo, p. 471. 32:1 From the application of instruments of architectuure to morality, the Platonic and Pythagorean philosophers took not only types but words to explain our moral ideas. For instance, a right man (rectus); obligation, from ligament (ligare) and from the same law (lex a ligare); to square our actions (quadrare) Justum aequum, &c. Rude mind, polished mind; from rude stone, and polished stone, &c. 32:2 The meetings or assemblies of the Dionysian Artificers went by various names, ( ας συνοιχια {Greek as sunoixia}) contubernium, which was the place of their meeting. The society was called sometimes συναγωγη {Greek sunagwgh} (collegium); ἄρεσις {Greek á?resis}; (secta); συνοδος {Greek sunodos} (congregatio) χοινος {Greek xoinos}; (communitas). Aulus Gellius, Lib. cap. II. 32:3 See Chiseul, Antiquitates Asiaticæ, p. 95.

32:3 See Chiseul, Antiquitates Asiaticæ, p. 95. 32:4 "This example imitated those Ionians who emigrated from Europe to the maritime countries of Caria (Asia Minor) and also the Dorians, their neighbours, building temples at a common expense. The Ionians built the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Dorians that of Apollo at Triopii, where at a certain period they repaired with their wives and children, and there performed sacred rites, and had a market, likewise games, races, wrestlings, music-parties of different kinds, and made common offerings to the gods. When they had performed the spectacles and the business of the market, or fair, and fulfilled towards each other the duties of fellow creatures, if there was any litigation between the cities, they sat as judges to settle the dispute: moreover, in these assemblies they debated as to the war with the barbarians, and the means of keeping a mutual concord amongst the nations." Dionis. Halicarn. Lib. III p. 229. edit. 1691. 33:1 "After this, the inhabitants of Ionia thought proper to apply to Cambyses, and having represented to him what was their business, the king ordered them into his presence, and asked who they were, and how they came to live in his dominions; and having examined and ascertained from whence they proceeded, he admired them, and chose rather that they should be erected into a society by himself, than to allow that he received such as coming from another country; for he thought it was not decorous to receive favours from others, who sojourned in his country, as if he would receive those services as pay for their habitations; and, therefore, to show this, dismissed them with presents, as marks of his munificence."

Libanius in Orat. XI. Antiochus. Vol. II. p. 343. 33:2 Robertson's Greece, p. 127. 33:3 Eusebius de Prep. Evang. L. III. c. 12. p. 117. 33:4 I Kings, chap. v. 33:5 The English translation of the Bible in I Kings c. v. v. 18 where the original Hebrew says Gibblim ( גבלים {Hebrew GBLYM}) or Gibblites, which means inhabitants of Gebbel, renders it, by the appellative, stone squares. The proof that this reading is not correct, is not only because of the different opinions of all other translations, which understand by this Gibblim the inhabitants of Gebbel; but that the same English p. 34 translation, in another part of the Bible, renders the same word by the ancients of Gebbal. (Ezek. ch. xxvii. v. 9.) Now that Gabbel was the same as Byblos is clear; because the Septuagint version always translates this Gebbel for Byblos, and though there were several cities of this name, yet this one seems to be that which is between Tripoli and Berite; and still called Gebail. In fact, Lucian, in his Treatise De Dea Syria, says expressly, that Gabala was Byblos, famous for the worship of Adonis. 34:1 For we find in Ezekiel these words "And I saw the women sitting weeping for Thamuz," that is to say, Adonis. Such, however, was what was done by the inhabitants of those cities, in testimony of which, they sent letters to women who were at Byblos, when Adonis was found, and afterwards scaled and thrown into the sea, they say they were spontaneously carried to Byblos; and, when arrived there, women ceased to weep for Adonis."

Procopius in Isaiah c. xviii. 34:2 Josephus Antiquit. Lib. VIII. c. 5. 34:3 I Kings chap. xi. v. 5, and 6. 35:1 Ezek. c. viii. v. 14. Thamuz signifies the name of a month, and likewise the name of an idol or divinity, which even in the opinion of St. Jerome is the same as Adonis. Plutarch says that the Egyptians called Osiris Ammuz, and from thence was corruptly derived the name of Jupiter Ammon. Robertson (Thesaurus Linguæ Sanctæ) says that the word Ammuz (read Ammoum) used by Herodotus and Plutarch, were corruptions from the Hebrew Thamuz (Hebrew תםוז {Hebrew TMWZ}). I would rather say that the word was originally Egyptian, and made Hebrew by the addition of the formative ת {Hebrew T}); and the more so, as Ammuz in the Egyptian language signifies (by the explanation of Manetho in Plutarch) something abstruse or concealed; which has an evident allusion to the concealment or symbolical death of Osiris or Adonis. 35:2 Mark. chap. xii. v. 18. 36:1 Thus in the numbers, 3, 5, 7, 12, 15 must have been preserved as essential. In the ceremonies, the symbol of death and resurrection; the crossing of the equinoxial twice, &c. In the time, the season of the year, when the sun arrives at the two tropics, the rising, the southing, the setting, &c. 36:2 Chron. chap. iii. v. 2. 36:3 See note page 10. 37:1 πετρωμα {Greek petrwma} 37:2 Vitruvius Lib. IV. c. 5. 37:3 "Justly, therefore, Plato knowing the world to be the temple of God, showed a place in the city where the symbols should answer."

37:3 "Justly, therefore, Plato knowing the world to be the temple of God, showed a place in the city where the symbols should answer." Clemens, Strom. Lib. V. p. 691. 38:1 We shall here first quote the authority of the Jews on this point. "Now let us consider what may be subindicated by the cherubim and flaming sword turning every way. What if this ought to be thought the circumvolution of the whole heavens?" "But of the flaming sword turning every way, it may thus be understood to signify the perpetual motion of these (Cherubim) and of the whole heavens. But what if it be taken otherwise? So that the two cherubim signify both hemispheres." Philo Judeus, p. 111, & 112. "The tunic of the high priest since it was of linen, represents the earth; but the blue, the pole of heaven; the lightenings were indicated by the pomegranates; the thunders by the sound of the bells, &c. . . ." ". . . . But the two sardonixes, with which the pontifical garment is clasped, denotes the sun and the moon, but if any one wish to refer the twelve stones to the twelve months, or to the same number of stars (constellations) in the circle, which the Greeks called the zodiac, he will not wander from the true meaning." Josephus, Antiq. Lib. III. Now for the Christian Fathers: "It would be too long to follow the prophetical and legal (statements) which have been expressed by enigmas: almost the whole of the divine Scripture offer up these sort of oracles.

"It would be too long to follow the prophetical and legal (statements) which have been expressed by enigmas: almost the whole of the divine Scripture offer up these sort of oracles. "He who reasons properly will find sufficient for the purpose, we shall give a few examples. So for instance what the ancients told of the temple, the seven enclosures, which also refer to other things in the history of the Hebrews, and what was inside by the apparatus of divers Symbols, referring to appearances, signify in their composition what refers, to heaven and earth. They signify, then, what to the nature of the elements imports the revelation of God. For the purple comes from the water, the linen ( Βυσοσ {Greek Busos}) from the earth, the blue (hyacinthus) from the colour of the sky, as it is dark; the scarlet, the fire. In the middle, however, of the Temple was the veil, beyond which only the priests could go; there was the censer, symbol of the earth, which is this world, and from which exaltations takes place. But that place, which afterwards inside of the veil, where only the high priest had permission to enter, and that on certain days; the external court which was open to all Hebrews, they say was the medium between heaven and earth. Others say it was the symbol of the world, which is perceived by our intellectual senses. But the opening which separated the infidelity of the people, p. 39 was extended before five columns, and separated those who were in the court."

Clemens, Strom. L. V. p. 665. This Christian Father explains these columns, by the following passage of Plato: "Plato says we must contemplate these columns, and diligently see that no profane person dares to go there. Those are profane who believe that nothing exists, but what they can touch with their hands, but the actions and generations, and all those things, which we cannot see, in things which exist, are without number. Such are those who attend to nothing else beyond the five senses." Clemens, Strom. Lib. V. "Now for the candlestick, which was placed on the south of the censer. By this was exemplified the motion of the seven planets, which have their motions in the south. For on each side of the candlestick were branches, and in them lamps; because, the sun also, as a lamp, is placed in the middle of the other errant (stars), and those which are above it, and those which are below it, by a certain divine harmony receive light from him." Clemens, Strom. Lib. V. p. 666. "Those things, however, told of the sacred ark, signify the world as perceived by the intellectual senses, which are occult and shut to the vulgar. Besides those golden images, each having six wings, they either signify the two bears, as some will have it; or, what seems more convenient, the two hemispheres. Indeed the name of cherubim signifies an extensive knowledge. But both have two wings, and thus signify the sensible world, and the time carried on by the circle of the zodiac."

Clemens, Strom. Lib. V. p. 667. "But the 360 bells, pending from the long robe (of the priest) are the times of the year; for it is said, this is the year of the Lord, preaching and sounding the great arrival of the Saviour." Clemens, Strom. Lib. V. p. 668. "The two brilliant emerald stones, which are on the shoulder-piece, signify the sun and the moon, which are the helpers of nature. For is was supposed the shoulder to be the beginning of the hand. But those other twelve stones, which are disposed in four rows, describe to us the circle of the zodiac, and agreeing to the four seasons of the year." Clemens, Strom. Lib. V. p. 691. 40:1 The first civil month of the Jews, called Tisri, ( תישרי {Hebrew TYShRY}) was from the Egyptain Misri, changing only the formative ט {Hebrew T} into ת {Hebrew T}. And the word was derived from יםר {Hebrew YMR} (rectum esse), as then the sun was in the equinoxial: and the Rabbins, to this day, call the equinoxial םישרי {Hebrew MYShRY}. The Greeks spelling badly the name called this Egyptian month ημυςορυ {Greek hmusoru}. 40:2 The number 12, which is that of the months of the year, and alluded to in so many types of the Temple, must have afforded also facilities to establish the system of the Dionysian Artificers; and therefore we shall give some idea of the heathen philosophy attached to this number, in the following extracts from Suidas: "The great Demiurgos, or architect of the universe, employed twelve thousand years, in the work he has produced, and divided in twelve times the twelve houses of the sun."

"The great Demiurgos, or architect of the universe, employed twelve thousand years, in the work he has produced, and divided in twelve times the twelve houses of the sun." Suidas, Art. Tyrrhenia. "In the first thousand, he made the heaven and earth. In the second thousand, the firmament (expansion) which he called coelum. In the third thousand, he made the sea, and the water that runs on the earth. In the fourth, he made two p. 41 great torches of nature. In the fifth, he made the quadrupeds, animals that live on the earth and in the waters. In the sixth, he made the man." "The first six thousand years having preceded the formation of the human race, it seems it will not exist but during six thousand years, which are the others to complete the period of twelve thousand, at the end of which the world will finish." Suidas Ib. Now if you take each sign of the zodiac for 24,000 years, you will explain the above mystery. When the sun comes out of Aries, or the spring sign, the world is said to be born; here the period of life begins. When the sun is in Cancer, or the summer, is the pleasure and delights of life. When in Libra, life has declined: after that all is winter of death; and from this arise the fables about the four ages of the world. The books of the Persian Mythology explain to us the same meaning. "Time is 12,000 years, it is said in the law, that the celestial people were three thousand years to exist, and then the enemy (Satan or Arhiman) was not in the world, which makes six thousand years . . . ."

"Time is 12,000 years, it is said in the law, that the celestial people were three thousand years to exist, and then the enemy (Satan or Arhiman) was not in the world, which makes six thousand years . . . ." "The thousand of good appeared in the Lamb, the Bull, the Taurus, the Cancer, the Lion, and the Sheep, which make six thousand years. After the thousand of God, comes the Scale (Libra), Arhiman came into the world (that is to say the winter)." Boun Dehesh; translation du Perron, p. 420. "Orsmud, speaking in the law, says, 'I made the productions of the world in 365 days:' it is for this reason that the six gahs gahambars (months) are included in the year." ib. p. 400. Astronomically speaking, there is no period or cycle of 12,000 years. But Dupuis has solved the mystery, by saying, that the periods of the ancient Indians and Chaldeans, answered to the series 1, 2, 3, 4, or 4, 3, 2, 1. Thus the duration of the four ages of the world, according to the Ezour Vedan, were 1st age 4,000 years 2nd 3,000 3rd 2,000 4th 1,000 Memoirs de l'Academie des Inscript. tom. 31. p. 254. The Baga Vedan counts thus, p. 41 1st age 4,800 years 2nd 3,600 3rd 2,400 4th 1,200 Total 12,000 The Indians figured this system by a cow with four legs; or the number twelve, taken successively four times. Another Indian period establishes the duration of the world thus, 1st age 1,728,000 years 2nd 1,296,000

1,296,000 3rd 864,000 4th 432,000 Total 4,320,000 Now the smallest of these numbers (432,000) elevated to 2, 3, and 4, will give a sum total of 4,320,000. The Indians say that the year of the gods is composed of 360 years of those of men; if you divide 4,320,000 for 360 you will have 12. In the Chaldean period, as given by Berosus, we find the same numbers of 432,000, and to compose it, he follows the arithmetic order, thus: 1st degree 12,000 2nd 24,000 3rd 36,000 4th 48,000 5th 60,000 6th 72,000 7th 84,000 8th 96,000 Total 432,000 42:1 The columns or pillars were denominated יכיז {Hebrew YKYZ} and בעז {Hebrew B!Z} the first signifies establish, from כיז {Hebrew KYZ} to establish or make firm; the second signifies in strength, from the proposition ב {Hebrew B} in, and the root עוז {Hebrew !WZ} strength. 43:1 "Now the Assideans were the first amongst the children of Israel that sought peace of them." Maccab. vii. v. 13. I should translate this passage differently, thus: "And those, who amongst the sons of Israel were called Assideans, were the first of this assembly, and they wished to ask them peace." According to this interpretation, by far more expressive of the text, it is seen, that the Assideans were a respectable body, for they were the first of that assembly. In I Maccab. ii. v. 42, it is said, "Then came there unto him a company of Assideans, who were mighty men of Israel, even all such as were voluntarily devoted unto the law."

In I Maccab. ii. v. 42, it is said, "Then came there unto him a company of Assideans, who were mighty men of Israel, even all such as were voluntarily devoted unto the law." The very word Assidean or Cassidean is supposed to be derived from the Hebrew Cassidim, which in Psalm 78. v. 2. is taken in the sense of men pious, holy, full of piety and mercy. 43:2 "So for thousands of centuries, incredible to be said, this people is eternal, without any body being born amongst them." Pliny, Lib. V. cap. 17. 43:3 Josephus, Lib. 13. cap. 19. 44:1 in προγονοι {Greek progonoi}. 44:2 "Before they admit any one who desire it, into their sect, they put him to one year's probation, and inure him to the practice of their most uneasy exercises. After this term they admit him into the common refectory, and the place where they bathe; but not into the interior of the house, till after another trial of two years; then they are allowed to make a kind of profession, wherein they engage by horrible oaths, to observe the laws of piety, justice, and modesty; fidelity to God and their Prince; never to discover the secrets of their sect to strangers, and to preserve the books of their masters, and the names of angels with great care." Josephus, loco citato. 44:3 "They hold the soul to be immortal, and believe that souls descend from the highest air into the bodies animated by them, whither they are drawn by some natural attraction, which they cannot resist; and after death, they swiftly return to the place, from whence they came, as if freed from a long and melancholy captivity. In respect to the state of the soul after death, they have almost the same sentiments as the heathen, who place the souls of good men in the Elysian fields, and those of the wicked in Tartarus."

Josephus, loco citato. 45:1 Philo, Lib. V. cap. 17. 45:2 Some employ themselves in husbandry, others in trade and manufactures of such things only as are useful in time of peace, their designs being beneficial only to themselves and other men . . . . ." "You do not find an artificer among them, who would make an arrow, a dart, or sword, or helmet, or cuirass, or shield, or any sort of arms, machines, or warlike instruments." Philo, loco citato. 45:3 "Their instructions run principally on holiness, equity, justice, economy, policy, the distinction between real good and real evil; of what is indifferent, what we ought to pursue or to avoid. The three fundamental maxims of their morality are, the love of God, of virtue, and of our neighbour." Philo, loco citato. 45:4 "the Essenians transmitted the doctrines they had received from their ancestors." Philo. De vita contemplativa Apud opera, p. 691 45:5 "They had distinguishing signs." Ib. 45:6 "I shall say something of their congregations and how often they celebrated their banquets, &c." Ib. p. 692. 46:1 Vide Iamblicus, de Vita Pythagoræ, cap. 17. and Basnage, History of the Jews, B. II. cap. 13. 46:2 Strabo, p. 471. 46:3 Psellus, quoted by Clinch, Antologia Hibernica, for January, 1794.