AND THEIR PARALLELS IN OTHER RELIGIONS BEING A COMPARISON OF THE Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles WITH THOSE OF HEATHEN NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY CONSIDERING ALSO THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING BY T. W. DOANE WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FOURTH EDITION "He who knows only one religion knows none.”—Prof. Max MULLER. "The same thing which is now called CHRISTIAN RELIGION existed among the Ancients. They have begun to call Christian the true religion which existed before."-ST. AUGUSTINE. "Our love for what is old, our reverence for what our fathers used, makes us keep still in the church, and on the very altar cloths, symbols which would excite the smile of an Oriental, and lead him to wonder why we send missionaries to his land, while cherishing his faith in ours.”—James Bonwick. NEW YORK THE COMMONWEALTH COMPANY 28 LAFAYETTE PLACE Printed in the U. S. A. INTRODUCTION. THE idea of publishing the work here presented did not suggest itself until a large portion of the material it contains had been accumulated for the private use and personal gratification of the author. In pursuing the study of the Bible Myths, facts pertaining thereto, in a condensed form, seemed to be greatly needed, and nowhere to be found. Widely scattered through hundreds of ancient and modern volumes, most of the contents of this book may indeed be found; but any previous attempt to trace exclusively the myths and legends of the Old and New Testament to their origin, published as a separate work, is not known to the writer of this. Many able writers have shown our so-called Sacred Scriptures to be unhistorical, and have pronounced them largely legendary, but have there left the matter, evidently aware of the great extent of the subject lying beyond. As Thomas Scott remarks, in his English Life of Jesus: "How these narratives (i. e., the New Testament narratives), unhistorical as they have been shown to be, came into existence, it is not our business to explain; and once again, at the end of the task, as at the beginning and throughout, we must emphatically disclaim the obligation." To pursue the subject from the point at which it is abandoned by this and many other distinguished writers, has been the labor of the author of this volume for a number of years. The result of |