178 



REV. CAXON J. T. PARFIT, M.A., ON 



Bel-Marduk was regarded as the Creator of the present order 

 of things, and the struggle between Hght and darkness is 

 symbolized by his fight with the Dragon of Chaos. 



Rimmon and Hadad, Dagon and Tammuz were Babylonian 

 gods that were subsequently worshipped in Syria. Tammuz 

 is the same as the famous Greek Adonis, the youth of marvellous 

 beauty, killed at a boar-hmit, whose blood was changed into 

 flowers. 



The prophet Ezekiel, who complains of the twenty-five men 

 actually worshipping the sun vdth their backs to the door of the 

 Temple, also speaks of the Israelitish women whom he saw in a 

 vision weeping for Tammuz at the gate of the house of Jehovah 

 (Ezek. viii, 14-16). 



One of our photographs shows the place in the Lebanon where 

 his festival was annually celebrated with peculiar pomp both 

 here and at Alexandria. 



Ishtar was the popular goddess worshipped everywhere, the 

 wife of Tammuz, the Ashtoreth of Palestine, the Aphrodite 

 of the Greeks, the Venus of the Romans. The image of Ishtar 

 was sent into Egypt in the reign of Amenophis III, and the 

 excavations at Carchemish show that the goddess of that great 

 Hittite city was the Babylonian Ishtar. Amongst these excava- 

 tions I was shown a Hittite shrine that resembled so closely 

 the ordering of the Hebrew Temple that one might suppose 

 David and Solomon had this model before them when constructing 

 the great fane in Jerusalem. 



]\Iany minor features of modern religious behef were common 

 in Babylonia 4000 years ago. The inscriptions clearly indicate 

 a behef in the Divine Right of Kings. The gods raised the 

 monarchs to the thrones of their respective countries and made 

 them the rightful rulers. 



As with the Hebrews, sacrifices and offerings w^ere made to the 

 gods, rites of purification existed, great lavers stood at the 

 entrance to the temples, incense was burnt in honour of the gods, 

 to whom hymns were sung, accompanied by v.ind instruments 

 and harps. The priesthood was apparently hereditary as 

 with the Levites, the priests shaved their heads and tithes were 

 regularly paid to them. Prayers were recited in Accadian even 

 when this language ceased to be understood by the people. 

 They were all strict Sabbatarians. 



This will suflice to illustrate my first remark that many funda- 

 mental religious conceptions spread from Mesopotamia. They 



