Chapter 4: Sabaism, Hellenism, and the Beginnings of Idol Worship

Col. iii. 11 — Epiphanius's distinction of the various religions — Two kinds of idolatry: Sabaism and Hellenism — The peculiar superstition of the Druids — The beginning of idolatry in the worship of celestial bodies, Job xxxi. 26-28 — The exposition of the ancients noted — The time when Job lived — The beginning of error in the seduction of the heart, Deut. xi. 16 — The mode of the most ancient worship — What adoration is — Religious salutation — The ecstasy of Socrates — Catulus — Pompey — The kiss — Religious adoration, Ps. ii. 12 — The rendering of the LXX (Septuagint) noted — Jerome on Hos. xiii. 2 — The custom of adoration by kisses, from Pliny, Apuleius, Lucian, Minutius Felix — The rationale for bodily bowing in adoration — The first sacrifices to idols without blood — The opinion of Porphyry — Reconciliation of opinions on the origin of sacrifices, Gen. iv. 4, viii. 20 — The offering of grain added to adoration, Hos. ii. 8 — The origin of other ceremonies — The nature and desert of idolatry — The Egyptians as the first worshippers of the stars — The Chaldeans and Persians join them — Whether the sun alone was God among the Persians — The opinion of Herodotus — The number of gods continually increased with the succession of time — Writers on the history of the Magi — The practice of the Greeks and Romans in cataloguing the gods of other nations — The gods of the Germans and Gauls — Tacitus noted — The sun as the most ancient god of the Carthaginians — Also of the Greeks, as Plato testifies — The rationale for the siting of sacred places — The beginnings of idolatry — The folly and blasphemies of Cardanus — Nimrod among the builders of the tower of Babylon — The trifles of the Jews — The universality of solar worship, its polyonymy.

I. Paul the apostle, in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians, teaches that in Jesus Christ there is neither Greek, nor Jew, nor Barbarian, nor Scythian. From this Epiphanius, in the first book against Heresies, draws out various species of religion: Barbarism, Scythism, Hellenism, and Judaism. He writes that Barbarism prevailed from Adam to Noah; Scythism from Noah to the age of Serug, at which point Hellenism was introduced; and he traces the beginning of Judaism from the circumcision of Abraham. But since he holds that the entry of idolatry into the world occurred after the flood, it is clear that by Barbarism he understands that ferocity and violence of morals which laid waste the antediluvian world. Between Scythism and Hellenism he places this distinction: that image-worship was introduced by the latter, from which the former was free. Whether he has distinguished these things rightly or not, let others judge; Petavius denies it in his annotations on that passage. We, for our part, hold that all that idolatrous worship which occupied nearly the whole world was of two kinds, one of which may be called Sabaism, and the other Hellenism. But since there were many peculiarities in the superstition of the Druids, we will describe that separately in a few words. Sabaism consisted in the worship and religion of the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars; Hellenism added to it the veneration of deceased men and of demons. The adoration of images, likenesses, and stars was common to both. But the crowd of idolaters worshipped the heavens before they worshipped fictitious celestial beings. Thus idolatry had its beginning in Sabaism, that is, in the worship of celestial things. This we will first demonstrate. Then we will show in brief what handles of corrupt superstition the human race seized upon, and by what vain reasonings Satan drew men into deceit and error; and, as far as we are able to determine by conjecture, we will mark the time of the origin of this most pernicious error.

II. That idolatry established its beginning in the world in the worship of the sky and the sun is proved by all the monuments of past ages. For there exist in the Old Testament, beyond all the credibility of profane history and the most ancient memory of events among the nations, illustrious testimonies of this crime. To this effect, the most ancient writer — whether he was Moses, which is most probable, or another divinely inspired man of equal age, through whom the Holy Spirit entrusted the history of Job to the faith of the church — records the apologetic words of that most holy man: cap. xxxi. 26-28, "If I have seen the sun when it shone, and the moon walking honorably; and my heart has secretly seduced itself, and my mouth has kissed my hand: this also would have been iniquity deserving judgment, because I would have denied God who is above." With due respect to them, I would say that what Chrysostom, Nilus, Olympiodorus, and other ancients comment on this passage is most inept. They deny that idolatry is being discussed here, and claim that Job, in denying that his hand kissed his mouth, meant to say that he had never felt so arrogantly about his own virtues and works — which he denotes by the sun — or about the fame of his name, which he attributes to the moon, as to have kissed his own hand, as if whatever help or ability he possessed he had achieved from himself alone. These things, I say, are inept, and contrary both to the scope of the passage and to its very words. The holy man is speaking most openly about the worship of celestial bodies. Moreover, while he carefully separates this crime from himself, he makes plain that very many others in that time were engaged in it. Job lived some 350 years after the Babylonian dispersion, in the year of the world 2100, or thereabouts. The words show that in that century this superstition had made progress and had spread far and wide. But Job attributes the beginning of error to the seduction of the heart.

The Holy Spirit also elsewhere reveals this source of idolatry: Deuteronomy 11:16, "Beware lest your heart deceive you, and turn you away to foreign gods." All other things are naturally suited to point toward the true God; all the danger lies in the human heart alone. Therefore, deceived by the appearance of empty reasonings — which would have had no force, unless they had first been wholly turned away from love of God and of spiritual things — the most ancient idolaters worshipped the sun and moon religiously, at first in secret, and then openly. We will set forth those shadows of reasoning in the next chapter. The mode of worship that he mentions is simple adoration. Now adoration is a religious salutation expressed by bringing the hand to the mouth. In this the error of the heart first expressed itself; other religious ceremonies were introduced gradually. Thus Plato relates that Socrates greeted the sun, and sometimes underwent a state of ecstasy in that form of worship. Although superstition grew immensely, yet that simple adoration endured through all the ages of ancient ignorance. Catulus, in Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, book 1, chap. 28: "I had stopped, as it happened, greeting the rising dawn, when suddenly Roscius arose on my left."

For they especially worshipped the rising sun. Hence the contemptuous gibe of Pompey against the declining dominion of Sulla: "More people worship the rising sun than the setting sun" — Plutarch, Life of Pompey. And from this, temples were built facing the rising of the sun. Nor does the ancient custom among Christians of bowing toward the east and worshipping come from any other source — though other reasons are put forward for that superstitious practice — for they are all plainly futile.

Furthermore, Job denies that his hand, brought to his mouth, had kissed it, or had pressed a kiss. For the kiss was indeed a pledge and sign of religious worship. So the Psalmist (Psalm 2:12), in Hebrew, "Kiss the Son" — that is, worship with religious reverence. The LXX (Septuagint) corrupts the sense of the passage, rendering the words as "Lay hold of instruction," and the Vulgate interpreter follows them. Jerome acknowledges that religious worship is intended, and therefore renders the words, "Worship purely." The veneration of idols by kisses was also an ancient practice, and remains so: Hosea 13:2, in Hebrew, "Let them kiss the calves" — that is, let them worship — as the same Jerome states in Against Rufinus, book 1. "They were accustomed," says Cicero in the Verrine Orations 4., "not only to venerate the statues of Hercules, but also to kiss them." "In adoring, we bring the right hand to a kiss, and turn the whole body around," as Pliny, book 28, chap. 2. Plutarch, in the Life of Numa, gives the rationale for this turning or bending of the body. He says it was instituted at Numa's direction that those who worship should turn around. He adds: "The turning of those who worship is said to be an imitation of the revolution of the world" — that is, of the circuit of the heavens which the sun traverses. But this bending of the body seems to have been introduced after temples facing the east were built. For since those who worshipped idols in them were compelled to face toward the west —

— they turned their bodies around, in order to show that they were directing themselves primarily toward the sun. Lucian, in On the Dance, affirms that the Indians added dancing to kisses in adoration. Also Apuleius, in the fourth book of The Golden Ass, speaking of a beautiful maiden whom they admired as a goddess: "Many of the citizens," he says, "bringing their right hand to their mouths, with the forefinger resting upon the upright thumb, worshipped her with religious adorations as if she were the goddess Venus herself." When statues were erected, they kissed them directly; but in the worship of celestial bodies — namely, the sun and moon, as being absent — they were accustomed only to bring the hand to the mouth; and they did the same with other statues as well, when they could not, while passing by, take the time to perform full religious devotion. So Minutius Felix relates that Caecilius, upon noticing a statue of Serapis, "brought his hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss with his lips."

In the age of Job, sacrifice had not yet been offered to the sun, to horses, to bats, to mice, and to other creeping things (concerning which Maimonides, in the third part of the Guide of the Perplexed, cap. 29.), nor to grain, still less with human blood, as was done afterward. After simple adoration — that is, the worship of the heart expressing itself solely through bodily acts and bowings — offerings of the fruits of the earth followed. For up to this point we agree with the opinion of Porphyry in the second book of On Abstinence from Animal Food. The first sacrifices offered to idols consisted not of animals and blood, but of the fruits of the earth. It is most certain that the first sacrifice pleasing to God was a blood sacrifice (Genesis 4:4); and also after the flood (Genesis 8:20). Nor is there any doubt that, as long as men worshipped the true God alone with religious devotion, they honored Him with blood sacrifices. When they turned to idols, they did not dare immediately, nor until a long time afterward, to offer them sacrifices from animals. Their first sacrifices, after adoration, were from the fruits of the earth. Thus the prophet complains that the Israelites offered grain, wine, and oil to Baal — that is, to the sun — Hosea 1:8. And in the poet,—

"Those, turned with eyes toward the rising sun, offer salted grain with their hands." — Aen. 12. 172.

The Pythagoreans, abstaining from the blood of animals, added hymns to adoration. These hymns also were a most well-known part of true or superstitious religious worship. Such were those of Homer and Callimachus, which are extant. Many other ceremonies were afterward received among the nations, which derived partly from the very obscure fame of Mosaic legislation, and partly from Satan's cunning malice.

V. Then the most holy man adds the nature and desert of this crime. He teaches that its nature consists in the denial of the omnipotent God who is above, who governs all things, who disposes all things, and who created the sun itself. "I would have denied," he says, "God who is above." This is perhaps contrary to what has seemed right to many who are entangled in that error. Most mortals scarcely consider all religious worship of creatures to be a denial of God the Creator. But he significantly adds the word meaning "above" or "from on high"; for since the chief reason for solar worship has always been that men have seen it carried above all things, he indicates that God alone is exalted above all things. Rightly, in this sense, Maimonides, On Idolatry, book 2, states in Hebrew: "He who turns to idolatry falls away from the whole law." And a little before: "Behold, here you learn that he who takes up idolatry denies the whole law, and all the prophets, and whatever was commanded to the prophets, from the first man to the end of the world."

VI. He adds that this kind of worship of the sun and moon was declared an iniquity deserving judgment — that is, most worthy of the severe judgment and punishment of God, or justly to be abominated by all the godly. For "sun" the text has the Hebrew word for light by way of preeminent denomination. Hence the sun was called Horus.

VII. Several passages from Deuteronomy harmonize with this testimony. Moreover, this worship of the celestial bodies, especially of the sun, which without doubt immediately overran the world from the Babylonian dispersion, obtained universal prevalence before the idols that Hellenism worshipped were either known or born.

VIII. The first to give themselves openly and wickedly to this superstition were the Egyptians. We shall demonstrate this shortly from Diodorus, Lactantius, and others. The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans followed them. Bel was none other than the Sun. God was angry with Hezekiah because, when the king of Babylon had sent ambassadors to inquire about the miracle of the sun's descent (2 Chronicles 32:31), he did not seize the opportunity to proclaim the true God and declare to them that the sun is a creature obedient to His command. IX. Herodotus testifies the same thing concerning the ancient Persians [the Massagetae] in

Clio, ch. 216: "They worship," he says, "the sun alone of the gods, and sacrifice horses to him." Mithras also was the greatest, if not the only, god among the ancient Persians: "The Persians believed Mithras to be the sun" — Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 1 against Julian. Similarly Strabo: "They believe that the sun alone is God, and to him they sacrificed." X. All seem to affirm that the sun was the sole god of the ancient Persians. The distinguished Vossius denies this in book 2 of his work On Idolatry, and, citing testimonies from Plutarch and Hesychius against Herodotus, he teaches that they admitted other gods. Yet it is by no means established that they had not, after the manner customary among idolaters, enrolled others in the number of gods before the time of Plutarch, whom they had not yet worshipped in the days of Herodotus. For after the human race had, by its own authority, granted itself the right of fabricating divine powers, the number of gods increased daily. Varro counted thirty thousand. Concerning the earlier ages, the Satirist aptly remarks (Juv. Sat. 12:46):

"Nor was the throng of gods such as it is today; and the stars, content with a few divine powers, pressed upon wretched Atlas with a lighter burden." But neither does Herodotus say absolutely that the sun is the sole divine power among the Persians; rather, he says that of all the gods whom Greece worshipped, only the sun was held in divine honor among the Persians. For he mentions elsewhere that other stars and elements as well, which stand in the same relation as the sun, are among the Persian sacred objects (Clio, ch. 131): "They sacrifice," he says, "to the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and winds." For the worship of these has accompanied solar worship almost everywhere. "To these alone," he adds, "they have offered sacred rites from the beginning." In these things idolatry had its origin. "From others they learned to worship the host of heaven with sacrifices."

XI. Hence in Diogenes Laertius, in the preface to his work, the historians of the Magi charge Herodotus — as having forgotten himself — with falsehood, because he wrote that Xerxes hurled javelins at the sun, since the sun was held to be God by the Magi who accompanied Xerxes on his expedition, those guardians of Persian superstition.

XII. Herodotus adds, moreover: "It is their custom, having ascended the highest mountains, to offer sacrifices to Jupiter, calling the entire circuit of the heavens Jupiter." By what name, however, they called the circuit of the heavens in their own language is entirely unknown. For it was most common among Greeks and Romans to designate the gods of other nations by the names of those whose worship had prevailed among themselves. Thus far Herodotus is correct in that, although he pretends that the Persians worshipped Jupiter, he shows that he did not intend the Greek Jupiter whom he introduced — the Hellenic one. Others write differently. Thus they write that the Gauls and Germans worshipped Jupiter and Mercury. But all the surviving memory of the origins of those peoples demonstrates that none of the Celts had ever so much as heard those names before the arrival of the Greeks and Romans in Gaul. Since, however, the Greeks and Romans were most ignorant in their knowledge of the origins of peoples, nations, and religions, they did not believe that the human race anywhere had thought beyond their own inventions.

XIII. More accurately and closer to the truth is Caesar on the Germans, in Gallic War, book 6, ch. 21: "They reckon in the number of gods only those whom they can see ... the Sun, Vulcan, the Moon; the rest they have not even heard of by report." Tacitus differs, asserting that they worshipped Hercules, Mars, Mercury, and Isis. "Tacitus therefore knew more and more certain things about the religion of the Germans than Caesar," says Lipsius. "And whether Caesar made these inquiries in Gaul or in Germany, either the account given to him was inaccurate, or he himself did not investigate with sufficient care" — so Montanus on that passage of Caesar. But in truth Tacitus was either himself deceived or willingly deceives others. He imposes Roman names at his pleasure upon the gods of the Germans. For Woden was not Mercury, nor was Taranis Jupiter, nor Hesus Mars. Those Roman names were as unknown to the Germans as the myths that form the foundation of their worship in Hellenism. Eostre, however, or Aistar, was perhaps the same goddess as the Astarte of the Syrians. Concerning her, Bede writes: "Eostermonath, which is now called Pascha; this month formerly took its name from a goddess of theirs called Eostre, in whose honor they celebrated festivals in that month." And indeed the word Eostar closely approaches the Syriac name Ashtoreth, which is the proper name of the Syrian goddess; for the fact that it is also said in the plural number denotes a multitude of images, or her worship established in multiple places. The pagans, seeing that Christians also established a feast tied to the observation of the lunar cycle, concluded that they were worshipping the moon, or Astarte, or Eostre; hence that name is retained to this day.

XIV. Caesar affirms that the Gauls worshipped Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, assigning to them the same attributes as the Greeks and Romans. But they derived that superstition from the Greek Massilians; for it does not belong to the institutions of the Druids. Furthermore, in the covenant made between the Carthaginians and Philip, king of Macedon, and others, against the Romans, as recorded in Polybius, Histories, book 17, the Carthaginians call the Sun and Moon the gods of their armies; by which, among other false divine powers, they show that these were the most ancient gods, since nearly all peoples placed their beginnings in arms and warfare.

XV. That the Greeks themselves also originally worshipped no gods other than the sun, moon, and stars, Plato is a witness in the Cratylus, where Socrates says: "It seems to me that those who first held Greece reckoned as gods only those whom many of the barbarians still worship today — namely, the sun, moon, earth, stars, and heaven; and since they saw all these things perpetually moving and running, it was from this notion of running (thein) that they named them gods (theous)." Nor is the etymology of that name, theos, which he offers, inappropriate, as we shall see.

XVI. And hence it was that all temples of antiquity, being erected to the sun, faced toward the east, yet also had sacred gates on the south side. Thus Homer describes his sacred Ithacan cave as having two entrances; and the southern gate he declares sacred to the gods, Odyssey N (Book 13), vv. 109-112: "But there are two gates: one facing toward the north, by which men descend; the other on the south side, more divine, by which those who enter do not go — it is the path of the immortals."

"But the door is double: this one, facing the North Wind, admits men; but that one

facing the South Wind, more divine, is altogether impassable

It belongs to man, and provides a way to the immortals alone." Now the only reason for this positioning of sacred places was that at midday the sun looks directly upon the southern door, as Porphyry attests. "Know," he says, "that this is also a symbol of the south, and of the meridian, toward which the door faces, as God presides at midday." The same custom is still retained everywhere in arranging the places they call sacred.

XVII. Let what has been said about several nations by way of preface suffice. We will show the same thing afterward specifically regarding the eastern peoples. This, I say, is how idolatry made its beginning in the world. Images or likenesses had not yet been invented; no pillars or columns had yet been erected for the sake of religion; no deceased men had yet been assigned to the rank of divine beings: the first error was in the heavens, and in the sun. It has pleased God to cover with deep darkness the primary authors of this crime, the precise time, and the places where it arose.

XVIII. But entirely vain and trifling are the things which Hieronymus Cardanus dissertates about the origin of idol worship in his commentary on Ptolemy, Astr. Judic., book i, text 17. "Mercury," he says, "joined with Venus, made the law of idols weak and given over to luxury, in which all things are permitted; and manifold on account of the power of Mercury; and therefore, since Venus is weak in comparison with the superior planets, it was made fickle, with many gods, full of superstitions and divination and fables, which are also full of adulteries and other vices, and of love of boys; for Mercury signifies all such things." And again: "The law of idols, because it had its origin from Venus, took its beginning from the south, namely Assyria, Babylon, and the Chaldeans; for Belus, king of the Assyrians, was the first to command that he be worshipped." This, I say, is sheer raving. But although these things are foolish and insipid, and utterly unworthy of one in whose breast there trembles even the slightest pulse, nevertheless one would wish that the learned man had set a limit to his madness in these matters, and had not blurted out what he vomited forth in that same place, impiously, foolishly, and blasphemously, concerning the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His law.

XIX. All the ancient writers judge that Nimrod, after he had expended his effort in vain on building the tower, fell not only into the worst moral corruption but also into idolatry. The distinguished Bochart, in book i, chapter x, holds that Nimrod was not present at that work, "since he had either not yet been born, or was still a boy." But this conjecture lacks a foundation; for although I believe that Nimrod did not seize his tyranny until after the dispersion of the peoples, yet since he was the son of Cush, the eldest son of Ham, he could have been sixty years old at the time the tower was being built. "But he established the beginning of his empire," says that most learned man, "in the very place from which he would have been dispersed, had he been one of the builders." But it is not necessary for us to say that all men without exception were driven from that place; and if they were, it is entirely certain that they immediately occupied it again. Therefore the opinion of the ancients is not altogether implausible: there is nothing I need to add. Among the dispersed builders of the tower, who had cast off all reverence for the true divine being, this crime grew first gradually and moderately, then broadly and headlong, and invaded the world.

XX. Within the space of not many centuries, it is established that nearly all nations accepted the divine sovereignty of the sun. So it was with the Phoenicians, as Sanchuniathon attests. "This one," he says — that is, the sun — "they considered the sole Lord of heaven, calling him Belsamen, which is in the Phoenician tongue 'lord of heaven.'" "They believed this one to be the sole lord of heaven, and therefore called him Belsamen, that is, in the Phoenician tongue, lord of heaven."

XXI. The worship of it therefore obtained universality; and the sun itself, by many names, was the same as Saturn, Jupiter, Hammon, Mithra, Horus, Adonis, Mars, Apollo, Osiris, Pan, Bacchus, Liber, Jupiter Sabazius, Hercules, Janus, Belenus, Abellio, and what not. Hence Plutarch calls the Sun and Moon "all-named" ones. For by heaping up epithets and piling on titles, they thought to capture the divine being and thereby to move it to the greatest honor; so that in the end what had been only different names of superstition came, as error spread, to be regarded as different divine beings — as the most learned Rivetus rightly notes on Hosea 2:8. In the "many-namedness" there was also a certain form of worship. Hence Ovid, Fasti, book vi, 213:

"I was wondering, whether I should assign the Nones to Sancus, or to Fidius, or to you, father Semo: when Sancus said to me: To whichever of those you give it, I shall receive the gift; I bear three names: so willed the people of Cures." And Horace, Carmen Saeculare, v. 14:

"Gentle Ilithyia, protect mothers, whether you prefer to be called Lucina, or Genitalis." And Sermones, book ii, sat. vi, v. 20:

"O father of the morning, or Janus, if that name pleases you better."

Catullus also, Carmen xxxiv, lines 5, 13, 21:

"O daughter of Latona, great offspring of mighty Jupiter; you are Lucina, called Juno by women in the pain of childbirth; you are powerful Trivia, and by a borrowed light you are called Luna.

Be holy by whatever name pleases you.'"

Callimachus likewise, Hymn to Apollo:—

Many are they who call upon Phoebus, many who invoke him as lord, many who share his name — but I make my way to Carneion. From the diverse manner of the sun's worship, from the ceremonies by which it was venerated, from the goods sought from it, from its benefactions, from the places in which it was solemnly adored, the sun acquired new names and new titles, and in the course of time thrust forward new and diverse divine beings. From this circumstance the Jews, perverting Scripture, assert that God granted the sun and moon to the gentiles for worship. They gather this from the words of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:19): "Lest perhaps you lift up your eyes to heaven, and see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the host of heaven, and be driven and bow down to them, and serve them" — which the Lord your God has apportioned to all peoples under all heaven. This is a most powerful argument for restraining the minds of peoples from the worship of heavenly bodies. That dominion which they attribute to the sun and moon is one of servitude, destined for the use of all

194 THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. [Book 3.] nations that are under heaven, destined for their use. But the Jews twist these things in another direction. God, they say, calling Israel to His own worship, set before the other nations the sun and moon as objects of adoration. So argues Trypho in Justin's Dialogue. "Tell us of another God," he says, "being careful to speak of the sun and moon, which, as it is written, God permitted to the gentiles to worship as gods" — being cautious about naming sun and moon, since it is written that they were permitted by God to the gentiles to worship them as gods. The Vulgate translator renders the sense of the passage most aptly: "Which the Lord your God created for the service of all nations," (Matthew 5:45).